Microorganisms and methods for the biosynthesis of butadiene

ABSTRACT

The invention provides non-naturally occurring microbial organisms having a butadiene pathway. The invention additionally provides methods of using such organisms to produce butadiene.

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-provisional application Ser. No. 14/059,131, filed Oct. 21, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S. Non-provisional application Ser. No. 13/101,046, filed May 4, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,580,543, which claims the benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 61/331,812, filed May 5, 2010, the entire contents of each application is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to biosynthetic processes, and more specifically to organisms having butadiene biosynthetic capability.

Over 25 billion pounds of butadiene (1,3-butadiene, BD) are produced annually and is applied in the manufacture of polymers such as synthetic rubbers and ABS resins, and chemicals such as hexamethylenediamine and 1,4-butanediol. Butadiene is typically produced as a by-product of the steam cracking process for conversion of petroleum feedstocks such as naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas, ethane or natural gas to ethylene and other olefins. The ability to manufacture butadiene from alternative and/or renewable feedstocks would represent a major advance in the quest for more sustainable chemical production processes.

One possible way to produce butadiene renewably involves fermentation of sugars or other feedstocks to produce diols, such as 1,4-butanediol or 1,3-butanediol, which are separated, purified, and then dehydrated to butadiene in a second step involving metal-based catalysis. Direct fermentative production of butadiene from renewable feedstocks would obviate the need for dehydration steps and butadiene gas (bp −4.4° C.) would be continuously emitted from the fermenter and readily condensed and collected. Developing a fermentative production process would eliminate the need for fossil-based butadiene and would allow substantial savings in cost, energy, and harmful waste and emissions relative to petrochemically-derived butadiene.

Microbial organisms and methods for effectively producing butadiene from cheap renewable feedstocks such as molasses, sugar cane juice, and sugars derived from biomass sources, including agricultural and wood waste, as well as C1 feedstocks such as syngas and carbon dioxide, are described herein and include related advantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides non-naturally occurring microbial organisms containing butadiene pathways comprising at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene. The invention additionally provides methods of using such microbial organisms to produce butadiene, by culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism containing butadiene pathways as described herein under conditions and for a sufficient period of time to produce butadiene.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a natural pathway to isoprenoids and terpenes. Enzymes for transformation of the identified substrates to products include: A. acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, B. hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA synthase, C. 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), D. mevalonate kinase, E. phosphomevalonate kinase, F. diphosphomevalonate decarboxylase, G. isopentenyl-diphosphate isomerase, H. isoprene synthase.

FIG. 2 shows exemplary pathways for production of butadiene from acetyl-CoA, glutaconyl-CoA, glutaryl-CoA, 3-aminobutyryl-CoA or 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA via crotyl alcohol. Enzymes for transformation of the identified substrates to products include: A. acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, B. acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, C. 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, D. crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), E. crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), F. crotyl alcohol kinase, G. 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, H. butadiene synthase, I. crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, transferase, J. crotonate reductase, K. crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), L. glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, M., glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, N. 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, 0. 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, P. crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase.

FIG. 3 shows exemplary pathways for production of butadiene from erythrose-4-phosphate. Enzymes for transformation of the identified substrates to products include: A. Erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, B. Erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, C. 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, D. Erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, E. 1-Hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, F. 1-Hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, G. Butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, H. Butadiene synthase I. Erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, J. Erythrose reductase, K. Erythritol kinase.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary pathway for production of butadiene from malonyl-CoA plus acetyl-CoA. Enzymes for transformation of the identified substrates to products include: A. malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, B. 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (ketone-reducing), C. 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), D. 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, E. 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, F. 3H5PP kinase, G. 3H5PDP decarboxylase, H. butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, I. butadiene synthase, J. 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), K. 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), L. 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (ketone reducing), M. 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (aldehyde reducing), N. 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate reductase, O. 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA reductase (CoA reducing and alcohol forming). Compound abbreviations include: 3H5PP=3-Hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate and 3H5PDP=3-Hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to the design and production of cells and organisms having biosynthetic production capabilities for butadiene. The invention, in particular, relates to the design of microbial organism capable of producing butadiene by introducing one or more nucleic acids encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme.

In one embodiment, the invention utilizes in silico stoichiometric models of Escherichia coli metabolism that identify metabolic designs for biosynthetic production of butadiene. The results described herein indicate that metabolic pathways can be designed and recombinantly engineered to achieve the biosynthesis of butadiene in Escherichia coli and other cells or organisms. Biosynthetic production of butadiene, for example, for the in silico designs can be confirmed by construction of strains having the designed metabolic genotype. These metabolically engineered cells or organisms also can be subjected to adaptive evolution to further augment butadiene biosynthesis, including under conditions approaching theoretical maximum growth.

In certain embodiments, the butadiene biosynthesis characteristics of the designed strains make them genetically stable and particularly useful in continuous bioprocesses. Separate strain design strategies were identified with incorporation of different non-native or heterologous reaction capabilities into E. coli or other host organisms leading to butadiene producing metabolic pathways from acetyl-CoA, glutaconyl-CoA, glutaryl-CoA, 3-aminobutyryl-CoA, 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, erythrose-4-phosphate or malonyl-CoA plus acetyl-CoA. In silico metabolic designs were identified that resulted in the biosynthesis of butadiene in microorganisms from each of these substrates or metabolic intermediates.

Strains identified via the computational component of the platform can be put into actual production by genetically engineering any of the predicted metabolic alterations, which lead to the biosynthetic production of butadiene or other intermediate and/or downstream products. In yet a further embodiment, strains exhibiting biosynthetic production of these compounds can be further subjected to adaptive evolution to further augment product biosynthesis. The levels of product biosynthesis yield following adaptive evolution also can be predicted by the computational component of the system.

The maximum theoretical butadiene yield from glucose is 1.09 mol/mol (0.33 g/g).

11 C₆H₁₂O₆=12 C₄H₆+18 CO₂+30 H₂O

The pathways presented in FIGS. 2 and 4 achieve a yield of 1.0 moles butadiene per mole of glucose utilized. Increasing product yields to theoretical maximum value is possible if cells are capable of fixing CO₂ through pathways such as the reductive (or reverse) TCA cycle or the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. Organisms engineered to possess the pathway depicted in FIG. 3 are also capable of reaching near theoretical maximum yields of butadiene.

As used herein, the term “non-naturally occurring” when used in reference to a microbial organism or microorganism of the invention is intended to mean that the microbial organism has at least one genetic alteration not normally found in a naturally occurring strain of the referenced species, including wild-type strains of the referenced species. Genetic alterations include, for example, modifications introducing expressible nucleic acids encoding metabolic polypeptides, other nucleic acid additions, nucleic acid deletions and/or other functional disruption of the microbial organism's genetic material. Such modifications include, for example, coding regions and functional fragments thereof, for heterologous, homologous or both heterologous and homologous polypeptides for the referenced species. Additional modifications include, for example, non-coding regulatory regions in which the modifications alter expression of a gene or operon. Exemplary metabolic polypeptides include enzymes or proteins within a butadiene biosynthetic pathway.

A metabolic modification refers to a biochemical reaction that is altered from its naturally occurring state. Therefore, non-naturally occurring microorganisms can have genetic modifications to nucleic acids encoding metabolic polypeptides, or functional fragments thereof. Exemplary metabolic modifications are disclosed herein.

As used herein, the term “butadiene,” having the molecular formula C₄H₆ and a molecular mass of 54.09 g/mol (see FIGS. 2-4) (IUPAC name Buta-1,3-diene) is used interchangeably throughout with 1,3-butadiene, biethylene, erythrene, divinyl, vinylethylene. Butadiene is a colorless, non corrosive liquefied gas with a mild aromatic or gasoline-like odor. Butadiene is both explosive and flammable because of its low flash point.

As used herein, the term “isolated” when used in reference to a microbial organism is intended to mean an organism that is substantially free of at least one component as the referenced microbial organism is found in nature. The term includes a microbial organism that is removed from some or all components as it is found in its natural environment. The term also includes a microbial organism that is removed from some or all components as the microbial organism is found in non-naturally occurring environments. Therefore, an isolated microbial organism is partly or completely separated from other substances as it is found in nature or as it is grown, stored or subsisted in non-naturally occurring environments. Specific examples of isolated microbial organisms include partially pure microbes, substantially pure microbes and microbes cultured in a medium that is non-naturally occurring.

As used herein, the terms “microbial,” “microbial organism” or “microorganism” are intended to mean any organism that exists as a microscopic cell that is included within the domains of archaea, bacteria or eukarya. Therefore, the term is intended to encompass prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells or organisms having a microscopic size and includes bacteria, archaea and eubacteria of all species as well as eukaryotic microorganisms such as yeast and fungi. The term also includes cell cultures of any species that can be cultured for the production of a biochemical.

As used herein, the term “CoA” or “coenzyme A” is intended to mean an organic cofactor or prosthetic group (nonprotein portion of an enzyme) whose presence is required for the activity of many enzymes (the apoenzyme) to form an active enzyme system. Coenzyme A functions in certain condensing enzymes, acts in acetyl or other acyl group transfer and in fatty acid synthesis and oxidation, pyruvate oxidation and in other acetylation.

As used herein, the term “substantially anaerobic” when used in reference to a culture or growth condition is intended to mean that the amount of oxygen is less than about 10% of saturation for dissolved oxygen in liquid media. The term also is intended to include sealed chambers of liquid or solid medium maintained with an atmosphere of less than about 1% oxygen.

“Exogenous” as it is used herein is intended to mean that the referenced molecule or the referenced activity is introduced into the host microbial organism. The molecule can be introduced, for example, by introduction of an encoding nucleic acid into the host genetic material such as by integration into a host chromosome or as non-chromosomal genetic material such as a plasmid. Therefore, the term as it is used in reference to expression of an encoding nucleic acid refers to introduction of the encoding nucleic acid in an expressible form into the microbial organism. When used in reference to a biosynthetic activity, the term refers to an activity that is introduced into the host reference organism. The source can be, for example, a homologous or heterologous encoding nucleic acid that expresses the referenced activity following introduction into the host microbial organism. Therefore, the term “endogenous” refers to a referenced molecule or activity that is present in the host. Similarly, the term when used in reference to expression of an encoding nucleic acid refers to expression of an encoding nucleic acid contained within the microbial organism. The term “heterologous” refers to a molecule or activity derived from a source other than the referenced species whereas “homologous” refers to a molecule or activity derived from the host microbial organism. Accordingly, exogenous expression of an encoding nucleic acid of the invention can utilize either or both a heterologous or homologous encoding nucleic acid.

It is understood that when more than one exogenous nucleic acid is included in a microbial organism that the more than one exogenous nucleic acids refers to the referenced encoding nucleic acid or biosynthetic activity, as discussed above. It is further understood, as disclosed herein, that such more than one exogenous nucleic acids can be introduced into the host microbial organism on separate nucleic acid molecules, on polycistronic nucleic acid molecules, or a combination thereof, and still be considered as more than one exogenous nucleic acid. For example, as disclosed herein a microbial organism can be engineered to express two or more exogenous nucleic acids encoding a desired pathway enzyme or protein. In the case where two exogenous nucleic acids encoding a desired activity are introduced into a host microbial organism, it is understood that the two exogenous nucleic acids can be introduced as a single nucleic acid, for example, on a single plasmid, on separate plasmids, can be integrated into the host chromosome at a single site or multiple sites, and still be considered as two exogenous nucleic acids. Similarly, it is understood that more than two exogenous nucleic acids can be introduced into a host organism in any desired combination, for example, on a single plasmid, on separate plasmids, can be integrated into the host chromosome at a single site or multiple sites, and still be considered as two or more exogenous nucleic acids, for example three exogenous nucleic acids. Thus, the number of referenced exogenous nucleic acids or biosynthetic activities refers to the number of encoding nucleic acids or the number of biosynthetic activities, not the number of separate nucleic acids introduced into the host organism.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can contain stable genetic alterations, which refers to microorganisms that can be cultured for greater than five generations without loss of the alteration. Generally, stable genetic alterations include modifications that persist greater than 10 generations, particularly stable modifications will persist more than about 25 generations, and more particularly, stable genetic modifications will be greater than 50 generations, including indefinitely.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the genetic alterations, including metabolic modifications exemplified herein, are described with reference to a suitable host organism such as E. coli and their corresponding metabolic reactions or a suitable source organism for desired genetic material such as genes for a desired metabolic pathway. However, given the complete genome sequencing of a wide variety of organisms and the high level of skill in the area of genomics, those skilled in the art will readily be able to apply the teachings and guidance provided herein to essentially all other organisms. For example, the E. coli metabolic alterations exemplified herein can readily be applied to other species by incorporating the same or analogous encoding nucleic acid from species other than the referenced species. Such genetic alterations include, for example, genetic alterations of species homologs, in general, and in particular, orthologs, paralogs or nonorthologous gene displacements.

An ortholog is a gene or genes that are related by vertical descent and are responsible for substantially the same or identical functions in different organisms. For example, mouse epoxide hydrolase and human epoxide hydrolase can be considered orthologs for the biological function of hydrolysis of epoxides. Genes are related by vertical descent when, for example, they share sequence similarity of sufficient amount to indicate they are homologous, or related by evolution from a common ancestor. Genes can also be considered orthologs if they share three-dimensional structure but not necessarily sequence similarity, of a sufficient amount to indicate that they have evolved from a common ancestor to the extent that the primary sequence similarity is not identifiable. Genes that are orthologous can encode proteins with sequence similarity of about 25% to 100% amino acid sequence identity. Genes encoding proteins sharing an amino acid similarity less that 25% can also be considered to have arisen by vertical descent if their three-dimensional structure also shows similarities. Members of the serine protease family of enzymes, including tissue plasminogen activator and elastase, are considered to have arisen by vertical descent from a common ancestor.

Orthologs include genes or their encoded gene products that through, for example, evolution, have diverged in structure or overall activity. For example, where one species encodes a gene product exhibiting two functions and where such functions have been separated into distinct genes in a second species, the three genes and their corresponding products are considered to be orthologs. For the production of a biochemical product, those skilled in the art will understand that the orthologous gene harboring the metabolic activity to be introduced or disrupted is to be chosen for construction of the non-naturally occurring microorganism. An example of orthologs exhibiting separable activities is where distinct activities have been separated into distinct gene products between two or more species or within a single species. A specific example is the separation of elastase proteolysis and plasminogen proteolysis, two types of serine protease activity, into distinct molecules as plasminogen activator and elastase. A second example is the separation of mycoplasma 5′-3′ exonuclease and Drosophila DNA polymerase III activity. The DNA polymerase from the first species can be considered an ortholog to either or both of the exonuclease or the polymerase from the second species and vice versa.

In contrast, paralogs are homologs related by, for example, duplication followed by evolutionary divergence and have similar or common, but not identical functions. Paralogs can originate or derive from, for example, the same species or from a different species. For example, microsomal epoxide hydrolase (epoxide hydrolase I) and soluble epoxide hydrolase (epoxide hydrolase II) can be considered paralogs because they represent two distinct enzymes, co-evolved from a common ancestor, that catalyze distinct reactions and have distinct functions in the same species. Paralogs are proteins from the same species with significant sequence similarity to each other suggesting that they are homologous, or related through co-evolution from a common ancestor. Groups of paralogous protein families include HipA homologs, luciferase genes, peptidases, and others.

A nonorthologous gene displacement is a nonorthologous gene from one species that can substitute for a referenced gene function in a different species. Substitution includes, for example, being able to perform substantially the same or a similar function in the species of origin compared to the referenced function in the different species. Although generally, a nonorthologous gene displacement will be identifiable as structurally related to a known gene encoding the referenced function, less structurally related but functionally similar genes and their corresponding gene products nevertheless will still fall within the meaning of the term as it is used herein. Functional similarity requires, for example, at least some structural similarity in the active site or binding region of a nonorthologous gene product compared to a gene encoding the function sought to be substituted. Therefore, a nonorthologous gene includes, for example, a paralog or an unrelated gene.

Therefore, in identifying and constructing the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention having butadiene biosynthetic capability, those skilled in the art will understand with applying the teaching and guidance provided herein to a particular species that the identification of metabolic modifications can include identification and inclusion or inactivation of orthologs. To the extent that paralogs and/or nonorthologous gene displacements are present in the referenced microorganism that encode an enzyme catalyzing a similar or substantially similar metabolic reaction, those skilled in the art also can utilize these evolutionally related genes.

Orthologs, paralogs and nonorthologous gene displacements can be determined by methods well known to those skilled in the art. For example, inspection of nucleic acid or amino acid sequences for two polypeptides will reveal sequence identity and similarities between the compared sequences. Based on such similarities, one skilled in the art can determine if the similarity is sufficiently high to indicate the proteins are related through evolution from a common ancestor. Algorithms well known to those skilled in the art, such as Align, BLAST, Clustal W and others compare and determine a raw sequence similarity or identity, and also determine the presence or significance of gaps in the sequence which can be assigned a weight or score. Such algorithms also are known in the art and are similarly applicable for determining nucleotide sequence similarity or identity. Parameters for sufficient similarity to determine relatedness are computed based on well known methods for calculating statistical similarity, or the chance of finding a similar match in a random polypeptide, and the significance of the match determined. A computer comparison of two or more sequences can, if desired, also be optimized visually by those skilled in the art. Related gene products or proteins can be expected to have a high similarity, for example, 25% to 100% sequence identity. Proteins that are unrelated can have an identity which is essentially the same as would be expected to occur by chance, if a database of sufficient size is scanned (about 5%). Sequences between 5% and 24% may or may not represent sufficient homology to conclude that the compared sequences are related. Additional statistical analysis to determine the significance of such matches given the size of the data set can be carried out to determine the relevance of these sequences.

Exemplary parameters for determining relatedness of two or more sequences using the BLAST algorithm, for example, can be as set forth below. Briefly, amino acid sequence alignments can be performed using BLASTP version 2.0.8 (Jan. 5, 1999) and the following parameters: Matrix: 0 BLOSUM62; gap open: 11; gap extension: 1; x_dropoff: 50; expect: 10.0; wordsize: 3; filter: on. Nucleic acid sequence alignments can be performed using BLASTN version 2.0.6 (Sep. 16, 1998) and the following parameters: Match: 1; mismatch: -2; gap open: 5; gap extension: 2; x_dropoff: 50; expect: 10.0; wordsize: 11; filter: off. Those skilled in the art will know what modifications can be made to the above parameters to either increase or decrease the stringency of the comparison, for example, and determine the relatedness of two or more sequences.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism, including a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase, a crotonate reductase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase or a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps A-H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps A-C, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps A-C, K, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase, (FIG. 2, steps A-C, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps A-C, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps A-E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps L, D-H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps L, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps L, K, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps L, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps L, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps L, C, D, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps M, D-H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps M, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps M, K, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps M, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps M, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps M, C, D, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps N, D-H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps N, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps N, K, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps N, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps N, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps N, C, D, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps O, D-H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps O, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps O, K, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps O, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps O, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps L, C, D, E, P, H).

In some embodiments, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism, including a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, an erythrose reductase or an erythritol kinase (FIG. 3). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 3, steps A-F, and H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase and butadiene synthase (FIG. 3, steps A-H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butadiene synthase, an erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, an erythrose reductase and a erythritol kinase (FIG. 3, steps I, J, K, B-F, H). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, an erythrose reductase and an erythritol kinase (FIG. 3, steps I, J, K, B-H).

In some embodiments, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism, including a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (ketone-reducing), a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (ketone reducing), a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (aldehyde reducing), a 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate reductase or an 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA reductase (CoA reducing and alcohol forming) (FIG. 4). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (ketone-reducing), a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 4, steps A-I). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (aldehyde reducing) and a 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate reductase. (FIG. 4, steps A, K, M, N, E, F, G, H, I). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-Hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-Hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming) and a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (ketone reducing). (FIG. 4, steps A, K, L, D, E, F, G, H, I). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, a 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate reductase and a 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA reductase (CoA reducing and alcohol forming). (FIG. 4, steps A, O, N, E, F, G, H, I). In one aspect, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding butadiene pathway enzymes expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (ketone-reducing), a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase and a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming). (FIG. 4, steps A, B, J, E, F, G, H, I).

In an additional embodiment, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a butadiene pathway, wherein the non-naturally occurring microbial organism comprises at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding an enzyme or protein that converts a substrate to a product selected from the group consisting of acetyl-CoA to acetoacetyl-CoA, acetoacetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA, crotonyl-CoA to crotonaldehyde, crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol, crotyl alcohol to 2-betenyl-phosphate, 2-betenyl-phosphate to 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate, 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate to butadiene, erythrose-4-phosphate to erythritol-4-phosphate, erythritol-4-phosphate to 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol, 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol to 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol, 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol to erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate, erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate to 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate, 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate to butenyl 4-diphosphate, butenyl 4-diphosphate to 2-butenyl 4-diphosphate, 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate to 2-butenyl 4-diphosphate, 2-butenyl 4-diphosphate to butadiene, malonyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA to 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA, 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA to 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA to 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate to 3,5-dihydroxy pentanoate, 3,5-dihydroxy pentanoate to 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate to 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate to butenyl 4-biphosphate, glutaconyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA, glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA, 3-aminobutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA, 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA, crotonyl-CoA to crotonate, crotonate to crotonaldehyde, crotonyl-CoA to crotyl alcohol, crotyl alcohol to 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate, erythrose-4-phosphate to erythrose, erythrose to erythritol, erythritol to erythritol-4-phosphate, 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA to 3,5-dioxopentanoate, 3,5-dioxopentanoate to 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate, 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate to 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate, 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA to 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate, 3,5-dioxopentanoate to 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate and 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA to 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate. One skilled in the art will understand that these are merely exemplary and that any of the substrate-product pairs disclosed herein suitable to produce a desired product and for which an appropriate activity is available for the conversion of the substrate to the product can be readily determined by one skilled in the art based on the teachings herein. Thus, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism containing at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding an enzyme or protein, where the enzyme or protein converts the substrates and products of a butadiene pathway, such as that shown in FIGS. 2-4.

While generally described herein as a microbial organism that contains a butadiene pathway, it is understood that the invention additionally provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism comprising at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce an intermediate of a butadiene pathway. For example, as disclosed herein, a butadiene pathway is exemplified in FIGS. 2-4. Therefore, in addition to a microbial organism containing a butadiene pathway that produces butadiene, the invention additionally provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism comprising at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme, where the microbial organism produces a butadiene pathway intermediate, for example, acetoacetyl-CoA, 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, crotonyl-CoA, crotonaldehyde, crotyl alcohol, 2-betenyl-phosphate, 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate, erythritol-4-phosphate, 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol, 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol, erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate, 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate, butenyl 4-diphosphate, 2-butenyl 4-diphosphate, 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA, 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate, 3,5-dihydroxy pentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate, crotonate, erythrose, erythritol, 3,5-dioxopentanoate or 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate.

It is understood that any of the pathways disclosed herein, as described in the Examples and exemplified in the Figures, including the pathways of FIGS. 2-4, can be utilized to generate a non-naturally occurring microbial organism that produces any pathway intermediate or product, as desired. As disclosed herein, such a microbial organism that produces an intermediate can be used in combination with another microbial organism expressing downstream pathway enzymes to produce a desired product. However, it is understood that a non-naturally occurring microbial organism that produces a butadiene pathway intermediate can be utilized to produce the intermediate as a desired product.

The invention is described herein with general reference to the metabolic reaction, reactant or product thereof, or with specific reference to one or more nucleic acids or genes encoding an enzyme associated with or catalyzing, or a protein associated with, the referenced metabolic reaction, reactant or product. Unless otherwise expressly stated herein, those skilled in the art will understand that reference to a reaction also constitutes reference to the reactants and products of the reaction. Similarly, unless otherwise expressly stated herein, reference to a reactant or product also references the reaction, and reference to any of these metabolic constituents also references the gene or genes encoding the enzymes that catalyze or proteins involved in the referenced reaction, reactant or product. Likewise, given the well known fields of metabolic biochemistry, enzymology and genomics, reference herein to a gene or encoding nucleic acid also constitutes a reference to the corresponding encoded enzyme and the reaction it catalyzes or a protein associated with the reaction as well as the reactants and products of the reaction.

As disclosed herein, the intermediats crotanate; 3,5-dioxopentanoate, 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate, 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA and 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, as well as other intermediates, are carboxylic acids, which can occur in various ionized forms, including fully protonated, partially protonated, and fully deprotonated forms. Accordingly, the suffix “-ate,” or the acid form, can be used interchangeably to describe both the free acid form as well as any deprotonated form, in particular since the ionized form is known to depend on the pH in which the compound is found. It is understood that carboxylate products or intermediates includes ester forms of carboxylate products or pathway intermediates, such as O-carboxylate and S-carboxylate esters. O- and S-carboxylates can include lower alkyl, that is C1 to C6, branched or straight chain carboxylates. Some such O- or S-carboxylates include, without limitation, methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, n-butyl, i-propyl, sec-butyl, and tert-butyl, pentyl, hexyl O- or S-carboxylates, any of which can further possess an unsaturation, providing for example, propenyl, butenyl, pentyl, and hexenyl O- or S-carboxylates. O-carboxylates can be the product of a biosynthetic pathway. Exemplary O-carboxylates accessed via biosynthetic pathways can include, without limitation: methyl crotanate; methy-3,5-dioxopentanoate; methyl-5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate; methyl-3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate; 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA, methyl ester; 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, methyl ester; ethyl crotanate; ethyl-3,5-dioxopentanoate; ethyl-5-hydroxy-3-xopentanoate; ethyl-3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate; 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA, ethyl ester; 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, ethyl ester; n-propyl crotanate; n-propyl-3,5-dioxopentanoate; n-propyl-5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate; n-propyl-3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate; 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA, n-propyl ester; and 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, n-propyl ester. Other biosynthetically accessible O-carboxylates can include medium to long chain groups, that is C7-C22, O-carboxylate esters derived from fatty alcohols, such heptyl, octyl, nonyl, decyl, undecyl, lauryl, tridecyl, myristyl, pentadecyl, cetyl, palmitolyl, heptadecyl, stearyl, nonadecyl, arachidyl, heneicosyl, and behenyl alcohols, any one of which can be optionally branched and/or contain unsaturations. O-carboxylate esters can also be accessed via a biochemical or chemical process, such as esterification of a free carboxylic acid product or transesterification of an O- or S-carboxylate. S-carboxylates are exemplified by CoA S-esters, cysteinyl S-esters, alkylthioesters, and various aryl and heteroaryl thioesters.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can be produced by introducing expressible nucleic acids encoding one or more of the enzymes or proteins participating in one or more butadiene biosynthetic pathways. Depending on the host microbial organism chosen for biosynthesis, nucleic acids for some or all of a particular butadiene biosynthetic pathway can be expressed. For example, if a chosen host is deficient in one or more enzymes or proteins for a desired biosynthetic pathway, then expressible nucleic acids for the deficient enzyme(s) or protein(s) are introduced into the host for subsequent exogenous expression. Alternatively, if the chosen host exhibits endogenous expression of some pathway genes, but is deficient in others, then an encoding nucleic acid is needed for the deficient enzyme(s) or protein(s) to achieve butadiene biosynthesis. Thus, a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention can be produced by introducing exogenous enzyme or protein activities to obtain a desired biosynthetic pathway or a desired biosynthetic pathway can be obtained by introducing one or more exogenous enzyme or protein activities that, together with one or more endogenous enzymes or proteins, produces a desired product such as butadiene.

Host microbial organisms can be selected from, and the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms generated in, for example, bacteria, yeast, fungus or any of a variety of other microorganisms applicable to fermentation processes. Exemplary bacteria include species selected from Escherichia coli, Klebsiella oxytoca, Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens, Actinobacillus succinogenes, Mannheimia succiniciproducens, Rhizobium etli, Bacillus subtilis, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Gluconobacter oxydans, Zymomonas mobilis, Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptomyces coelicolor, Clostridium acetobutylicum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Pseudomonas putida. Exemplary yeasts or fungi include species selected from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Kluyveromyces lactis, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger, Pichia pastoris, Rhizopus arrhizus, Rhizobus oryzae, Yarrowia lipolytica, and the like. E. coli is a particularly useful host organism since it is a well characterized microbial organism suitable for genetic engineering. Other particularly useful host organisms include yeast such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is understood that any suitable microbial host organism can be used to introduce metabolic and/or genetic modifications to produce a desired product.

Depending on the butadiene biosynthetic pathway constituents of a selected host microbial organism, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention will include at least one exogenously expressed butadiene pathway-encoding nucleic acid and up to all encoding nucleic acids for one or more butadiene biosynthetic pathways. For example, butadiene biosynthesis can be established in a host deficient in a pathway enzyme or protein through exogenous expression of the corresponding encoding nucleic acid. In a host deficient in all enzymes or proteins of a butadiene pathway, exogenous expression of all enzyme or proteins in the pathway can be included, although it is understood that all enzymes or proteins of a pathway can be expressed even if the host contains at least one of the pathway enzymes or proteins. For example, exogenous expression of all enzymes or proteins in a pathway for production of butadiene can be included, such as an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps A-H).

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that the number of encoding nucleic acids to introduce in an expressible form will, at least, parallel the butadiene pathway deficiencies of the selected host microbial organism. Therefore, a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention can have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten, up to all nucleic acids encoding the enzymes or proteins constituting a butadiene biosynthetic pathway disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms also can include other genetic modifications that facilitate or optimize butadiene biosynthesis or that confer other useful functions onto the host microbial organism. One such other functionality can include, for example, augmentation of the synthesis of one or more of the butadiene pathway precursors such as acetyl-CoA, glutaconyl-CoA, glutaryl-CoA, 3-aminobutyryl-CoA, 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, erythrose-4-phosphate or malonyl-CoA.

Generally, a host microbial organism is selected such that it produces the precursor of a butadiene pathway, either as a naturally produced molecule or as an engineered product that either provides de novo production of a desired precursor or increased production of a precursor naturally produced by the host microbial organism. For example, acetyl-CoA, glutaconyl-CoA, glutaryl-CoA, 3-aminobutyryl-CoA, 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, erythrose-4-phosphate or malonyl-CoA are produced naturally in a host organism such as E. coli. A host organism can be engineered to increase production of a precursor, as disclosed herein. In addition, a microbial organism that has been engineered to produce a desired precursor can be used as a host organism and further engineered to express enzymes or proteins of a butadiene pathway.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention is generated from a host that contains the enzymatic capability to synthesize butadiene. In this specific embodiment it can be useful to increase the synthesis or accumulation of a butadiene pathway product to, for example, drive butadiene pathway reactions toward butadiene production. Increased synthesis or accumulation can be accomplished by, for example, overexpression of nucleic acids encoding one or more of the above-described butadiene pathway enzymes or proteins. Overexpression the enzyme or enzymes and/or protein or proteins of the butadiene pathway can occur, for example, through exogenous expression of the endogenous gene or genes, or through exogenous expression of the heterologous gene or genes. Therefore, naturally occurring organisms can be readily generated to be non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention, for example, producing butadiene, through overexpression of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, or ten, that is, up to all nucleic acids encoding butadiene biosynthetic pathway enzymes or proteins. In addition, a non-naturally occurring organism can be generated by mutagenesis of an endogenous gene that results in an increase in activity of an enzyme in the butadiene biosynthetic pathway.

In particularly useful embodiments, exogenous expression of the encoding nucleic acids is employed. Exogenous expression confers the ability to custom tailor the expression and/or regulatory elements to the host and application to achieve a desired expression level that is controlled by the user. However, endogenous expression also can be utilized in other embodiments such as by removing a negative regulatory effector or induction of the gene's promoter when linked to an inducible promoter or other regulatory element. Thus, an endogenous gene having a naturally occurring inducible promoter can be up-regulated by providing the appropriate inducing agent, or the regulatory region of an endogenous gene can be engineered to incorporate an inducible regulatory element, thereby allowing the regulation of increased expression of an endogenous gene at a desired time. Similarly, an inducible promoter can be included as a regulatory element for an exogenous gene introduced into a non-naturally occurring microbial organism.

It is understood that, in methods of the invention, any of the one or more exogenous nucleic acids can be introduced into a microbial organism to produce a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention. The nucleic acids can be introduced so as to confer, for example, a butadiene biosynthetic pathway onto the microbial organism.

Alternatively, encoding nucleic acids can be introduced to produce an intermediate microbial organism having the biosynthetic capability to catalyze some of the required reactions to confer butadiene biosynthetic capability. For example, a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a butadiene biosynthetic pathway can comprise at least two exogenous nucleic acids encoding desired enzymes or proteins, such as the combination of a crotyl alcohol kinase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase and butadiene synthase , or alternatively a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase, or alternatively a an erythrose reductase and butadiene synthase or alternatively an 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA reductase (CoA reducing and alcohol forming) and 3-Hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, and the like. Thus, it is understood that any combination of two or more enzymes or proteins of a biosynthetic pathway can be included in a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention. Similarly, it is understood that any combination of three or more enzymes or proteins of a biosynthetic pathway can be included in a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention, for example, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, and butadiene synthase, or alternatively an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a crotyl alcohol kinase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase, or alternatively a an erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase and a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, or alternatively a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (aldehyde reducing), a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, and a butadiene synthase, and so forth, as desired, so long as the combination of enzymes and/or proteins of the desired biosynthetic pathway results in production of the corresponding desired product. Similarly, any combination of four, such as a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase and butadiene synthase, or alternatively a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate kinase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively an erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase and butadiene synthase, or alternatively an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase and a butadiene synthase, or alternatively an erythrose reductase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase and a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, or alternatively a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase and a butadiene synthase, or more enzymes or proteins of a biosynthetic pathway as disclosed herein can be included in a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention, as desired, so long as the combination of enzymes and/or proteins of the desired biosynthetic pathway results in production of the corresponding desired product.

In addition to the biosynthesis of butadiene as described herein, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms and methods of the invention also can be utilized in various combinations with each other and with other microbial organisms and methods well known in the art to achieve product biosynthesis by other routes. For example, one alternative to produce butadiene other than use of the butadiene producers is through addition of another microbial organism capable of converting a butadiene pathway intermediate to butadiene. One such procedure includes, for example, the fermentation of a microbial organism that produces a butadiene pathway intermediate. The butadiene pathway intermediate can then be used as a substrate for a second microbial organism that converts the butadiene pathway intermediate to butadiene. The butadiene pathway intermediate can be added directly to another culture of the second organism or the original culture of the butadiene pathway intermediate producers can be depleted of these microbial organisms by, for example, cell separation, and then subsequent addition of the second organism to the fermentation broth can be utilized to produce the final product without intermediate purification steps.

In other embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms and methods of the invention can be assembled in a wide variety of subpathways to achieve biosynthesis of, for example, butadiene. In these embodiments, biosynthetic pathways for a desired product of the invention can be segregated into different microbial organisms, and the different microbial organisms can be co-cultured to produce the final product. In such a biosynthetic scheme, the product of one microbial organism is the substrate for a second microbial organism until the final product is synthesized. For example, the biosynthesis of butadiene can be accomplished by constructing a microbial organism that contains biosynthetic pathways for conversion of one pathway intermediate to another pathway intermediate or the product. Alternatively, butadiene also can be biosynthetically produced from microbial organisms through co-culture or co-fermentation using two organisms in the same vessel, where the first microbial organism produces a butadiene intermediate and the second microbial organism converts the intermediate to butadiene.

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that a wide variety of combinations and permutations exist for the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms and methods of the invention together with other microbial organisms, with the co-culture of other non-naturally occurring microbial organisms having subpathways and with combinations of other chemical and/or biochemical procedures well known in the art to produce butadiene.

Sources of encoding nucleic acids for a butadiene pathway enzyme or protein can include, for example, any species where the encoded gene product is capable of catalyzing the referenced reaction. Such species include both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms including, but not limited to, bacteria, including archaea and eubacteria, and eukaryotes, including yeast, plant, insect, animal, and mammal, including human. Exemplary species for such sources include, for example, Escherichia coli, Acidaminococcus fermentans, Acinetobacter baylyi, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Acinetobacter sp. ADP1, Acinetobacter sp. Strain M-1, Aquifex aeolicus, Arabidopsis thaliana, Arabidopsis thaliana col, Arabidopsis thaliana col, Archaeoglobus fulgidus DSM 4304, Azoarcus sp. CIB, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Bos Taurus, Brucella melitensis, Burkholderia ambifaria AMMD, Burkholderia phymatum, Campylobacter jejuni, Candida albicans, Candida magnoliae, Chloroflexus aurantiacus, Citrobacter youngae ATCC 29220, Clostridium acetobutylicum, Clostridium aminobutyricum, Clostridium beijerinckii, Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052, Clostridium beijerinckii NRRL B593, Clostridium botulinum C str. Eklund, Clostridium kluyveri, Clostridium kluyveri DSM 555, Clostridium novyi NT, Clostridium propionicum, Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum, Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032, Cupriavidus taiwanensis, Cyanobium PCC7001, Dictyostelium discoideum AX4, Enterococcus faecalis, Erythrobacter sp. NAP1, Escherichia coli K12, Escherichia coli str. K-12 substr. MG1655, Eubacterium rectale ATCC 33656, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. nucleatum ATCC 25586, Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius, Haematococcus pluvialis, Haemophilus influenzae, Haloarcula marismortui ATCC 43049, Helicobacter pylori, Homo sapiens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Lactobacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, marine gamma proteobacterium HTCC2080, Metallosphaera sedula, Methanocaldococcus jannaschii, Mus musculus, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis K-10, Mycobacterium bovis BCG, Mycobacterium marinum M, Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycoplasma pneumoniae M129, Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152, Nocardia iowensis (sp. NRRL 5646), Oryctolagus cuniculus, Paracoccus denitrificans, Penicillium chrysogenum, Populus alba, Populus tremula x Populus alba, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Porphyromonas gingivalis W83, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5, Pseudomonas knackmussii (B13), Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas putida E23, Pseudomonas putida KT2440, Pseudomonas sp, Pueraria Montana, Pyrobaculum aerophilum str. IM2, Pyrococcus furiosus, Ralstonia eutropha, Ralstonia eutropha H16, Ralstonia eutropha H16, Ralstonia metallidurans, Rattus norvegicus, Rhodobacter spaeroides, Rhodococcus rubber, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Roseburia intestinalis L1-82, Roseburia inulinivorans DSM 16841, Roseburia sp. A2-183, Roseiflexus castenholzii, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharopolyspora rythraea NRRL 2338, Salmonella enterica subsp. arizonae serovar, Salmonella typhimurium, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Simmondsia chinensis, Sinorhizobium meliloti, Staphylococcus, ureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptomyces coelicolor, Streptomyces griseus subsp. griseus, BRC 13350, Streptomyces sp. ACT-1, Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, Sulfolobus shibatae, Sulfolobus solfataricus, Sulfolobus tokodaii, Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803, Syntrophus, ciditrophicus, Thermoanaerobacter brockii HTD4, Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis MB4, Thermosynechococcus elongates, Thermotoga maritime MSB8, Thermus thermophilus, Thermus, hermophilus HB8, Trichomonas vaginalis G3, Trichosporonoides megachiliensis, Trypanosoma brucei, Tsukamurella paurometabola DSM 20162, Yersinia intermedia ATCC 29909, Zoogloea ramigera, Zygosaccharomyces rouxii, Zymomonas mobilis, as well as other exemplary species disclosed herein are available as source organisms for corresponding genes. However, with the complete genome sequence available for now more than 550 species (with more than half of these available on public databases such as the NCBI), including 395 microorganism genomes and a variety of yeast, fungi, plant, and mammalian genomes, the identification of genes encoding the requisite butadiene biosynthetic activity for one or more genes in related or distant species, including for example, homologues, orthologs, paralogs and nonorthologous gene displacements of known genes, and the interchange of genetic alterations between organisms is routine and well known in the art. Accordingly, the metabolic alterations allowing biosynthesis of butadiene described herein with reference to a particular organism such as E. coli can be readily applied to other microorganisms, including prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms alike. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will know that a metabolic alteration exemplified in one organism can be applied equally to other organisms.

In some instances, such as when an alternative butadiene biosynthetic pathway exists in an unrelated species, butadiene biosynthesis can be conferred onto the host species by, for example, exogenous expression of a paralog or paralogs from the unrelated species that catalyzes a similar, yet non-identical metabolic reaction to replace the referenced reaction. Because certain differences among metabolic networks exist between different organisms, those skilled in the art will understand that the actual gene usage between different organisms may differ. However, given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art also will understand that the teachings and methods of the invention can be applied to all microbial organisms using the cognate metabolic alterations to those exemplified herein to construct a microbial organism in a species of interest that will synthesize butadiene.

Methods for constructing and testing the expression levels of a non-naturally occurring butadiene-producing host can be performed, for example, by recombinant and detection methods well known in the art. Such methods can be found described in, for example, Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Third Ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York (2001); and Ausubel et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, John Wiley and Sons, Baltimore, Md. (1999).

Exogenous nucleic acid sequences involved in a pathway for production of butadiene can be introduced stably or transiently into a host cell using techniques well known in the art including, but not limited to, conjugation, electroporation, chemical transformation, transduction, transfection, and ultrasound transformation. For exogenous expression in E. coli or other prokaryotic cells, some nucleic acid sequences in the genes or cDNAs of eukaryotic nucleic acids can encode targeting signals such as an N-terminal mitochondrial or other targeting signal, which can be removed before transformation into prokaryotic host cells, if desired. For example, removal of a mitochondrial leader sequence led to increased expression in E. coli (Hoffmeister et al., J. Biol. Chem. 280:4329-4338 (2005)). For exogenous expression in yeast or other eukaryotic cells, genes can be expressed in the cytosol without the addition of leader sequence, or can be targeted to mitochondrion or other organelles, or targeted for secretion, by the addition of a suitable targeting sequence such as a mitochondrial targeting or secretion signal suitable for the host cells. Thus, it is understood that appropriate modifications to a nucleic acid sequence to remove or include a targeting sequence can be incorporated into an exogenous nucleic acid sequence to impart desirable properties. Furthermore, genes can be subjected to codon optimization with techniques well known in the art to achieve optimized expression of the proteins.

An expression vector or vectors can be constructed to include one or more butadiene biosynthetic pathway encoding nucleic acids as exemplified herein operably linked to expression control sequences functional in the host organism. Expression vectors applicable for use in the microbial host organisms of the invention include, for example, plasmids, phage vectors, viral vectors, episomes and artificial chromosomes, including vectors and selection sequences or markers operable for stable integration into a host chromosome. Additionally, the expression vectors can include one or more selectable marker genes and appropriate expression control sequences. Selectable marker genes also can be included that, for example, provide resistance to antibiotics or toxins, complement auxotrophic deficiencies, or supply critical nutrients not in the culture media. Expression control sequences can include constitutive and inducible promoters, transcription enhancers, transcription terminators, and the like which are well known in the art. When two or more exogenous encoding nucleic acids are to be co-expressed, both nucleic acids can be inserted, for example, into a single expression vector or in separate expression vectors. For single vector expression, the encoding nucleic acids can be operationally linked to one common expression control sequence or linked to different expression control sequences, such as one inducible promoter and one constitutive promoter. The transformation of exogenous nucleic acid sequences involved in a metabolic or synthetic pathway can be confirmed using methods well known in the art. Such methods include, for example, nucleic acid analysis such as Northern blots or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of mRNA, or immunoblotting for expression of gene products, or other suitable analytical methods to test the expression of an introduced nucleic acid sequence or its corresponding gene product. It is understood by those skilled in the art that the exogenous nucleic acid is expressed in a sufficient amount to produce the desired product, and it is further understood that expression levels can be optimized to obtain sufficient expression using methods well known in the art and as disclosed herein.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for producing butadiene that includes culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism, including a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway, the butadiene pathway including at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase, a crotonate reductase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase or a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps A-H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps A-C, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps A-C, K, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase, (FIG. 2, steps A-C, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps A-C, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps A-E, P, H),In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps L, D-H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps L, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps L, K, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps L, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps L, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps L, C, D, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps M, D-H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps M, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps M, K, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps M, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps M, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps M, C, D, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps N, D-H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps N, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps N, K, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps N, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps N, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps N, C, D, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 2, steps O, D-H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase and crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) (FIG. 2, steps O, K, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming) and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps O, K, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a crotyl alcohol kinase, a 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase, a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase, or transferase and a crotonate reductase (FIG. 2, steps O, I, J, E, F, G, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, synthetase or transferase, a crotonate reductase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps O, I, J, E, P, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase, a crotonyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming), a butadiene synthase, a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase and a crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, steps O, C, D, E, P, H).

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for producing butadiene that includes culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism, including a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway, the butadiene pathway including at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including an erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, an erythrose reductase or an erythritol kinase (FIG. 3). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 3, steps A-F, and H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an erythrose-4-phosphate reductase, an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase and butadiene synthase (FIG. 3, steps A-H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butadiene synthase, an erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, an erythrose reductase and a erythritol kinase (FIG. 3, steps I, J, K, B-F, H). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including an erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase, a 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase, an erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase, a 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an erythrose-4-phosphate kinase, an erythrose reductase and an erythritol kinase (FIG. 3, steps I, J, K, B-H).

In some embodiments, the invention provides a method for producing butadiene that includes culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism, including a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway, the butadiene pathway including at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce butadiene, the butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (ketone-reducing), a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming), an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (ketone reducing), a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (aldehyde reducing), a 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate reductase or an 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA reductase (CoA reducing and alcohol forming) (FIG. 4). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (ketone-reducing), a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase and a butadiene synthase (FIG. 4, steps A-I). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming), a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (aldehyde reducing) and a 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate reductase. (FIG. 4, steps A, K, M, N, E, F, G, H, I). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate reductase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-Hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-Hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming) and a 3,5-dioxopentanoate reductase (ketone reducing). (FIG. 4, steps A, K, L, D, E, F, G, H, I). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase, a 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate reductase and a 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA reductase (CoA reducing and alcohol forming). (FIG. 4, steps A, O, N, E, F, G, H, I). In one aspect, the method includes a microbial organism having a butadiene pathway including a malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA reductase (ketone-reducing), a 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate kinase, a 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate decarboxylase, a butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase, a butadiene synthase and a 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase (alcohol forming). (FIG. 4, steps A, B, J, E, F, G, H, I).

Suitable purification and/or assays to test for the production of butadiene can be performed using well known methods. Suitable replicates such as triplicate cultures can be grown for each engineered strain to be tested. For example, product and byproduct formation in the engineered production host can be monitored. The final product and intermediates, and other organic compounds, can be analyzed by methods such as HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography), GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy) and LC-MS (Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy) or other suitable analytical methods using routine procedures well known in the art. The release of product in the fermentation broth can also be tested with the culture supernatant. Byproducts and residual glucose can be quantified by HPLC using, for example, a refractive index detector for glucose and alcohols, and a UV detector for organic acids (Lin et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng. 90:775-779 (2005)), or other suitable assay and detection methods well known in the art. The individual enzyme or protein activities from the exogenous DNA sequences can also be assayed using methods well known in the art. For typical Assay Methods, see Manual on Hydrocarbon Analysis (ASTM Manula Series, A. W. Drews, ed., 6th edition, 1998, American Society for Testing and Materials, Baltimore, Md.

The butadiene can be separated from other components in the culture using a variety of methods well known in the art. Such separation methods include, for example, extraction procedures as well as methods that include continuous liquid-liquid extraction, pervaporation, membrane filtration, membrane separation, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, distillation, crystallization, centrifugation, extractive filtration, ion exchange chromatography, size exclusion chromatography, adsorption chromatography, and ultrafiltration. All of the above methods are well known in the art.

Any of the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms described herein can be cultured to produce and/or secrete the biosynthetic products of the invention. For example, the butadiene producers can be cultured for the biosynthetic production of butadiene.

For the production of butadiene, the recombinant strains are cultured in a medium with carbon source and other essential nutrients. It is sometimes desirable and can be highly desirable to maintain anaerobic conditions in the fermenter to reduce the cost of the overall process. Such conditions can be obtained, for example, by first sparging the medium with nitrogen and then sealing the flasks with a septum and crimp-cap. For strains where growth is not observed anaerobically, microaerobic or substantially anaerobic conditions can be applied by perforating the septum with a small hole for limited aeration. Exemplary anaerobic conditions have been described previously and are well-known in the art. Exemplary aerobic and anaerobic conditions are described, for example, in United State publication 2009/0047719, filed Aug. 10, 2007. Fermentations can be performed in a batch, fed-batch or continuous manner, as disclosed herein.

If desired, the pH of the medium can be maintained at a desired pH, in particular neutral pH, such as a pH of around 7 by addition of a base, such as NaOH or other bases, or acid, as needed to maintain the culture medium at a desirable pH. The growth rate can be determined by measuring optical density using a spectrophotometer (600 nm), and the glucose uptake rate by monitoring carbon source depletion over time.

The growth medium can include, for example, any carbohydrate source which can supply a source of carbon to the non-naturally occurring microorganism. Such sources include, for example, sugars such as glucose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, mannose, fructose, sucrose and starch. Other sources of carbohydrate include, for example, renewable feedstocks and biomass. Exemplary types of biomasses that can be used as feedstocks in the methods of the invention include cellulosic biomass, hemicellulosic biomass and lignin feedstocks or portions of feedstocks. Such biomass feedstocks contain, for example, carbohydrate substrates useful as carbon sources such as glucose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, mannose, fructose and starch. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that renewable feedstocks and biomass other than those exemplified above also can be used for culturing the microbial organisms of the invention for the production of butadiene.

In addition to renewable feedstocks such as those exemplified above, the butadiene microbial organisms of the invention also can be modified for growth on syngas as its source of carbon. In this specific embodiment, one or more proteins or enzymes are expressed in the butadiene producing organisms to provide a metabolic pathway for utilization of syngas or other gaseous carbon source.

Synthesis gas, also known as syngas or producer gas, is the major product of gasification of coal and of carbonaceous materials such as biomass materials, including agricultural crops and residues. Syngas is a mixture primarily of H₂ and CO and can be obtained from the gasification of any organic feedstock, including but not limited to coal, coal oil, natural gas, biomass, and waste organic matter. Gasification is generally carried out under a high fuel to oxygen ratio. Although largely H₂ and CO, syngas can also include CO₂ and other gases in smaller quantities. Thus, synthesis gas provides a cost effective source of gaseous carbon such as CO and, additionally, CO₂.

The Wood-Ljungdahl pathway catalyzes the conversion of CO and H₂ to acetyl-CoA and other products such as acetate. Organisms capable of utilizing CO and syngas also generally have the capability of utilizing CO₂ and CO₂/H₂ mixtures through the same basic set of enzymes and transformations encompassed by the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. H₂-dependent conversion of CO₂ to acetate by microorganisms was recognized long before it was revealed that CO also could be used by the same organisms and that the same pathways were involved. Many acetogens have been shown to grow in the presence of CO₂ and produce compounds such as acetate as long as hydrogen is present to supply the necessary reducing equivalents (see for example, Drake, Acetogenesis, pp. 3-60 Chapman and Hall, New York, (1994)). This can be summarized by the following equation:

2 CO₂+4 H₂+n ADP+n Pi→CH₃COOH+2 H₂O+n ATP

Hence, non-naturally occurring microorganisms possessing the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway can utilize CO₂ and H₂ mixtures as well for the production of acetyl-CoA and other desired products.

The Wood-Ljungdahl pathway is well known in the art and consists of 12 reactions which can be separated into two branches: (1) methyl branch and (2) carbonyl branch. The methyl branch converts syngas to methyl-tetrahydrofolate (methyl-THF) whereas the carbonyl branch converts methyl-THF to acetyl-CoA. The reactions in the methyl branch are catalyzed in order by the following enzymes or proteins: ferredoxin oxidoreductase, formate dehydrogenase, formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase, methenyltetrahydrofolate cyclodehydratase, methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. The reactions in the carbonyl branch are catalyzed in order by the following enzymes or proteins: methyltetrahydrofolate:corrinoid protein methyltransferase (for example, AcsE), corrinoid iron-sulfur protein, nickel-protein assembly protein (for example, AcsF), ferredoxin, acetyl-CoA synthase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and nickel-protein assembly protein (for example, CooC). Following the teachings and guidance provided herein for introducing a sufficient number of encoding nucleic acids to generate a butadiene pathway, those skilled in the art will understand that the same engineering design also can be performed with respect to introducing at least the nucleic acids encoding the Wood-Ljungdahl enzymes or proteins absent in the host organism. Therefore, introduction of one or more encoding nucleic acids into the microbial organisms of the invention such that the modified organism contains the complete Wood-Ljungdahl pathway will confer syngas utilization ability.

Additionally, the reductive (reverse) tricarboxylic acid cycle coupled with carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and/or hydrogenase activities can also be used for the conversion of CO, CO₂ and/or H₂ to acetyl-CoA and other products such as acetate. Organisms capable of fixing carbon via the reductive TCA pathway can utilize one or more of the following enzymes: ATP citrate-lyase, citrate lyase, aconitase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, alpha-ketoglutarate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase, succinyl-CoA synthetase, succinyl-CoA transferase, fumarate reductase, fumarase, malate dehydrogenase, NAD(P)H:ferredoxin oxidoreductase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, and hydrogenase. Specifically, the reducing equivalents extracted from CO and/or H₂ by carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and hydrogenase are utilized to fix CO₂ via the reductive TCA cycle into acetyl-CoA or acetate. Acetate can be converted to acetyl-CoA by enzymes such as acetyl-CoA transferase, acetate kinase/phosphotransacetylase, and acetyl-CoA synthetase. Acetyl-CoA can be converted to the p-toluate, terepathalate, or (2-hydroxy-3-methyl-4-oxobutoxy)phosphonate precursors, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, phosphoenolpyruvate, and pyruvate, by pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase and the enzymes of gluconeogenesis. Following the teachings and guidance provided herein for introducing a sufficient number of encoding nucleic acids to generate a p-toluate, terephthalate or (2-hydroxy-3-methyl-4-oxobutoxy)phosphonate pathway, those skilled in the art will understand that the same engineering design also can be performed with respect to introducing at least the nucleic acids encoding the reductive TCA pathway enzymes or proteins absent in the host organism. Therefore, introduction of one or more encoding nucleic acids into the microbial organisms of the invention such that the modified organism contains the complete reductive TCA pathway will confer syngas utilization ability.

Accordingly, given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that a non-naturally occurring microbial organism can be produced that secretes the biosynthesized compounds of the invention when grown on a carbon source such as a carbohydrate. Such compounds include, for example, butadiene and any of the intermediate metabolites in the butadiene pathway. All that is required is to engineer in one or more of the required enzyme or protein activities to achieve biosynthesis of the desired compound or intermediate including, for example, inclusion of some or all of the butadiene biosynthetic pathways. Accordingly, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism that produces and/or secretes butadiene when grown on a carbohydrate or other carbon source and produces and/or secretes any of the intermediate metabolites shown in the butadiene pathway when grown on a carbohydrate or other carbon source. The butadiene producing microbial organisms of the invention can initiate synthesis from an intermediate, for example, acetoacetyl-CoA, 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, crotonyl-CoA, crotonaldehyde, crotyl alcohol, 2-betenyl-phosphate, 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate, erythritol-4-phosphate, 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol, 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol, erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate, 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate, butenyl 4-diphosphate, 2-butenyl 4-diphosphate, 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA, 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate, 3,5-dihydroxy pentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate, 3-hydroxy-5-[hydroxy(phosphonooxy)phosphoryl]oxy pentanoate, crotonate, erythrose, erythritol, 3,5-dioxopentanoate or 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention are constructed using methods well known in the art as exemplified herein to exogenously express at least one nucleic acid encoding a butadiene pathway enzyme or protein in sufficient amounts to produce butadiene. It is understood that the microbial organisms of the invention are cultured under conditions sufficient to produce butadiene. Following the teachings and guidance provided herein, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can achieve biosynthesis of butadiene resulting in intracellular concentrations between about 0.001-2000 mM or more. Generally, the intracellular concentration of butadiene is between about 3-1500 mM, particularly between about 5-1250 mM and more particularly between about 8-1000 mM, including about 10 mM, 100 mM, 200 mM, 500 mM, 800 mM, or more. Intracellular concentrations between and above each of these exemplary ranges also can be achieved from the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention.

In some embodiments, culture conditions include anaerobic or substantially anaerobic growth or maintenance conditions. Exemplary anaerobic conditions have been described previously and are well known in the art. Exemplary anaerobic conditions for fermentation processes are described herein and are described, for example, in U.S. publication 2009/0047719, filed Aug. 10, 2007. Any of these conditions can be employed with the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms as well as other anaerobic conditions well known in the art. Under such anaerobic or substantially anaerobic conditions, the butadiene producers can synthesize butadiene at intracellular concentrations of 5-10 mM or more as well as all other concentrations exemplified herein. It is understood that, even though the above description refers to intracellular concentrations, butadiene producing microbial organisms can produce butadiene intracellularly and/or secrete the product into the culture medium.

In addition to the culturing and fermentation conditions disclosed herein, growth condition for achieving biosynthesis of butadiene can include the addition of an osmoprotectant to the culturing conditions. In certain embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can be sustained, cultured or fermented as described herein in the presence of an osmoprotectant. Briefly, an osmoprotectant refers to a compound that acts as an osmolyte and helps a microbial organism as described herein survive osmotic stress. Osmoprotectants include, but are not limited to, betaines, amino acids, and the sugar trehalose. Non-limiting examples of such are glycine betaine, praline betaine, dimethylthetin, dimethyl slfonioproprionate, 3-dimethylsulfonio-2-methylproprionate, pipecolic acid, dimethylsulfonioacetate, choline, L-carnitine and ectoine. In one aspect, the osmoprotectant is glycine betaine. It is understood to one of ordinary skill in the art that the amount and type of osmoprotectant suitable for protecting a microbial organism described herein from osmotic stress will depend on the microbial organism used. The amount of osmoprotectant in the culturing conditions can be, for example, no more than about 0.1 mM, no more than about 0.5 mM, no more than about 1.0 mM, no more than about 1.5 mM, no more than about 2.0 mM, no more than about 2.5 mM, no more than about 3.0 mM, no more than about 5.0 mM, no more than about 7.0 mM, no more than about 10 mM, no more than about 50 mM, no more than about 100 mM or no more than about 500 mM.

The culture conditions can include, for example, liquid culture procedures as well as fermentation and other large scale culture procedures. As described herein, particularly useful yields of the biosynthetic products of the invention can be obtained under anaerobic or substantially anaerobic culture conditions.

As described herein, one exemplary growth condition for achieving biosynthesis of butadiene includes anaerobic culture or fermentation conditions. In certain embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can be sustained, cultured or fermented under anaerobic or substantially anaerobic conditions. Briefly, anaerobic conditions refers to an environment devoid of oxygen. Substantially anaerobic conditions include, for example, a culture, batch fermentation or continuous fermentation such that the dissolved oxygen concentration in the medium remains between 0 and 10% of saturation. Substantially anaerobic conditions also includes growing or resting cells in liquid medium or on solid agar inside a sealed chamber maintained with an atmosphere of less than 1% oxygen. The percent of oxygen can be maintained by, for example, sparging the culture with an N₂/CO₂ mixture or other suitable non-oxygen gas or gases.

The culture conditions described herein can be scaled up and grown continuously for manufacturing of butadiene. Exemplary growth procedures include, for example, fed-batch fermentation and batch separation; fed-batch fermentation and continuous separation, or continuous fermentation and continuous separation. All of these processes are well known in the art. Fermentation procedures are particularly useful for the biosynthetic production of commercial quantities of butadiene. Generally, and as with non-continuous culture procedures, the continuous and/or near-continuous production of butadiene will include culturing a non-naturally occurring butadiene producing organism of the invention in sufficient nutrients and medium to sustain and/or nearly sustain growth in an exponential phase. Continuous culture under such conditions can be include, for example, growth for 1 day, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 days or more. Additionally, continuous culture can include longer time periods of 1 week, 2, 3, 4 or 5 or more weeks and up to several months. Alternatively, organisms of the invention can be cultured for hours, if suitable for a particular application. It is to be understood that the continuous and/or near-continuous culture conditions also can include all time intervals in between these exemplary periods. It is further understood that the time of culturing the microbial organism of the invention is for a sufficient period of time to produce a sufficient amount of product for a desired purpose.

Fermentation procedures are well known in the art. Briefly, fermentation for the biosynthetic production of butadiene can be utilized in, for example, fed-batch fermentation and batch separation; fed-batch fermentation and continuous separation, or continuous fermentation and continuous separation. Examples of batch and continuous fermentation procedures are well known in the art.

In addition to the above fermentation procedures using the butadiene producers of the invention for continuous production of substantial quantities of butadiene, the butadiene producers also can be, for example, simultaneously subjected to chemical synthesis procedures to convert the product to other compounds or the product can be separated from the fermentation culture and sequentially subjected to chemical or enzymatic conversion to convert the product to other compounds, if desired.

To generate better producers, metabolic modeling can be utilized to optimize growth conditions. Modeling can also be used to design gene knockouts that additionally optimize utilization of the pathway (see, for example, U.S. patent publications US 2002/0012939, US 2003/0224363, US 2004/0029149, US 2004/0072723, US 2003/0059792, US 2002/0168654 and US 2004/0009466, and U.S. Patent No. 7,127,379). Modeling analysis allows reliable predictions of the effects on cell growth of shifting the metabolism towards more efficient production of butadiene.

One computational method for identifying and designing metabolic alterations favoring biosynthesis of a desired product is the OptKnock computational framework (Burgard et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng. 84:647-657 (2003)). OptKnock is a metabolic modeling and simulation program that suggests gene deletion or disruption strategies that result in genetically stable microorganisms which overproduce the target product. Specifically, the framework examines the complete metabolic and/or biochemical network of a microorganism in order to suggest genetic manipulations that force the desired biochemical to become an obligatory byproduct of cell growth. By coupling biochemical production with cell growth through strategically placed gene deletions or other functional gene disruption, the growth selection pressures imposed on the engineered strains after long periods of time in a bioreactor lead to improvements in performance as a result of the compulsory growth-coupled biochemical production. Lastly, when gene deletions are constructed there is a negligible possibility of the designed strains reverting to their wild-type states because the genes selected by OptKnock are to be completely removed from the genome. Therefore, this computational methodology can be used to either identify alternative pathways that lead to biosynthesis of a desired product or used in connection with the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms for further optimization of biosynthesis of a desired product.

Briefly, OptKnock is a term used herein to refer to a computational method and system for modeling cellular metabolism. The OptKnock program relates to a framework of models and methods that incorporate particular constraints into flux balance analysis (FBA) models. These constraints include, for example, qualitative kinetic information, qualitative regulatory information, and/or DNA microarray experimental data. OptKnock also computes solutions to various metabolic problems by, for example, tightening the flux boundaries derived through flux balance models and subsequently probing the performance limits of metabolic networks in the presence of gene additions or deletions. OptKnock computational framework allows the construction of model formulations that allow an effective query of the performance limits of metabolic networks and provides methods for solving the resulting mixed-integer linear programming problems. The metabolic modeling and simulation methods referred to herein as OptKnock are described in, for example, U.S. publication 2002/0168654, filed Jan. 10, 2002, in International Patent No. PCT/US02/00660, filed Jan. 10, 2002, and U.S. publication 2009/0047719, filed Aug. 10, 2007.

Another computational method for identifying and designing metabolic alterations favoring biosynthetic production of a product is a metabolic modeling and simulation system termed SimPheny®. This computational method and system is described in, for example, U.S. publication 2003/0233218, filed Jun. 14, 2002, and in International Patent Application No. PCT/US03/18838, filed Jun. 13, 2003. SimPheny® is a computational system that can be used to produce a network model in silico and to simulate the flux of mass, energy or charge through the chemical reactions of a biological system to define a solution space that contains any and all possible functionalities of the chemical reactions in the system, thereby determining a range of allowed activities for the biological system. This approach is referred to as constraints-based modeling because the solution space is defined by constraints such as the known stoichiometry of the included reactions as well as reaction thermodynamic and capacity constraints associated with maximum fluxes through reactions. The space defined by these constraints can be interrogated to determine the phenotypic capabilities and behavior of the biological system or of its biochemical components.

These computational approaches are consistent with biological realities because biological systems are flexible and can reach the same result in many different ways. Biological systems are designed through evolutionary mechanisms that have been restricted by fundamental constraints that all living systems must face. Therefore, constraints-based modeling strategy embraces these general realities. Further, the ability to continuously impose further restrictions on a network model via the tightening of constraints results in a reduction in the size of the solution space, thereby enhancing the precision with which physiological performance or phenotype can be predicted.

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will be able to apply various computational frameworks for metabolic modeling and simulation to design and implement biosynthesis of a desired compound in host microbial organisms. Such metabolic modeling and simulation methods include, for example, the computational systems exemplified above as SimPheny® and OptKnock. For illustration of the invention, some methods are described herein with reference to the OptKnock computation framework for modeling and simulation. Those skilled in the art will know how to apply the identification, design and implementation of the metabolic alterations using OptKnock to any of such other metabolic modeling and simulation computational frameworks and methods well known in the art.

The methods described above will provide one set of metabolic reactions to disrupt. Elimination of each reaction within the set or metabolic modification can result in a desired product as an obligatory product during the growth phase of the organism. Because the reactions are known, a solution to the bilevel OptKnock problem also will provide the associated gene or genes encoding one or more enzymes that catalyze each reaction within the set of reactions. Identification of a set of reactions and their corresponding genes encoding the enzymes participating in each reaction is generally an automated process, accomplished through correlation of the reactions with a reaction database having a relationship between enzymes and encoding genes.

Once identified, the set of reactions that are to be disrupted in order to achieve production of a desired product are implemented in the target cell or organism by functional disruption of at least one gene encoding each metabolic reaction within the set. One particularly useful means to achieve functional disruption of the reaction set is by deletion of each encoding gene. However, in some instances, it can be beneficial to disrupt the reaction by other genetic aberrations including, for example, mutation, deletion of regulatory regions such as promoters or cis binding sites for regulatory factors, or by truncation of the coding sequence at any of a number of locations. These latter aberrations, resulting in less than total deletion of the gene set can be useful, for example, when rapid assessments of the coupling of a product are desired or when genetic reversion is less likely to occur.

To identify additional productive solutions to the above described bilevel OptKnock problem which lead to further sets of reactions to disrupt or metabolic modifications that can result in the biosynthesis, including growth-coupled biosynthesis of a desired product, an optimization method, termed integer cuts, can be implemented. This method proceeds by iteratively solving the OptKnock problem exemplified above with the incorporation of an additional constraint referred to as an integer cut at each iteration. Integer cut constraints effectively prevent the solution procedure from choosing the exact same set of reactions identified in any previous iteration that obligatorily couples product biosynthesis to growth. For example, if a previously identified growth-coupled metabolic modification specifies reactions 1, 2, and 3 for disruption, then the following constraint prevents the same reactions from being simultaneously considered in subsequent solutions. The integer cut method is well known in the art and can be found described in, for example, Burgard et al., Biotechnol. Prog. 17:791-797 (2001). As with all methods described herein with reference to their use in combination with the OptKnock computational framework for metabolic modeling and simulation, the integer cut method of reducing redundancy in iterative computational analysis also can be applied with other computational frameworks well known in the art including, for example, SimPheny®.

The methods exemplified herein allow the construction of cells and organisms that biosynthetically produce a desired product, including the obligatory coupling of production of a target biochemical product to growth of the cell or organism engineered to harbor the identified genetic alterations. Therefore, the computational methods described herein allow the identification and implementation of metabolic modifications that are identified by an in silico method selected from OptKnock or SimPheny®. The set of metabolic modifications can include, for example, addition of one or more biosynthetic pathway enzymes and/or functional disruption of one or more metabolic reactions including, for example, disruption by gene deletion.

As discussed above, the OptKnock methodology was developed on the premise that mutant microbial networks can be evolved towards their computationally predicted maximum-growth phenotypes when subjected to long periods of growth selection. In other words, the approach leverages an organism's ability to self-optimize under selective pressures. The OptKnock framework allows for the exhaustive enumeration of gene deletion combinations that force a coupling between biochemical production and cell growth based on network stoichiometry. The identification of optimal gene/reaction knockouts requires the solution of a bilevel optimization problem that chooses the set of active reactions such that an optimal growth solution for the resulting network overproduces the biochemical of interest (Burgard et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng. 84:647-657 (2003)).

An in silico stoichiometric model of E. coli metabolism can be employed to identify essential genes for metabolic pathways as exemplified previously and described in, for example, U.S. patent publications US 2002/0012939, US 2003/0224363, US 2004/0029149, US 2004/0072723, US 2003/0059792, US 2002/0168654 and US 2004/0009466, and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,379. As disclosed herein, the OptKnock mathematical framework can be applied to pinpoint gene deletions leading to the growth-coupled production of a desired product. Further, the solution of the bilevel OptKnock problem provides only one set of deletions. To enumerate all meaningful solutions, that is, all sets of knockouts leading to growth-coupled production formation, an optimization technique, termed integer cuts, can be implemented. This entails iteratively solving the OptKnock problem with the incorporation of an additional constraint referred to as an integer cut at each iteration, as discussed above.

As disclosed herein, a nucleic acid encoding a desired activity of a butadiene pathway can be introduced into a host organism. In some cases, it can be desirable to modify an activity of a butadiene pathway enzyme or protein to increase production of butadiene. For example, known mutations that increase the activity of a protein or enzyme can be introduced into an encoding nucleic acid molecule. Additionally, optimization methods can be applied to increase the activity of an enzyme or protein and/or decrease an inhibitory activity, for example, decrease the activity of a negative regulator.

One such optimization method is directed evolution. Directed evolution is a powerful approach that involves the introduction of mutations targeted to a specific gene in order to improve and/or alter the properties of an enzyme. Improved and/or altered enzymes can be identified through the development and implementation of sensitive high-throughput screening assays that allow the automated screening of many enzyme variants (for example, >10⁴). Iterative rounds of mutagenesis and screening typically are performed to afford an enzyme with optimized properties. Computational algorithms that can help to identify areas of the gene for mutagenesis also have been developed and can significantly reduce the number of enzyme variants that need to be generated and screened. Numerous directed evolution technologies have been developed (for reviews, see Hibbert et al., Biomol. Eng 22:11-19 (2005); Huisman and Lalonde, In Biocatalysis in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries pgs. 717-742 (2007), Patel (ed.), CRC Press; Otten and Quax. Biomol. Eng 22:1-9 (2005).; and Sen et al., Appl Biochem. Biotechnol 143:212-223 (2007)) to be effective at creating diverse variant libraries, and these methods have been successfully applied to the improvement of a wide range of properties across many enzyme classes. Enzyme characteristics that have been improved and/or altered by directed evolution technologies include, for example: selectivity/specificity, for conversion of non-natural substrates; temperature stability, for robust high temperature processing; pH stability, for bioprocessing under lower or higher pH conditions; substrate or product tolerance, so that high product titers can be achieved; binding (K_(m)), including broadening substrate binding to include non-natural substrates; inhibition (K_(i)), to remove inhibition by products, substrates, or key intermediates; activity (kcat), to increases enzymatic reaction rates to achieve desired flux; expression levels, to increase protein yields and overall pathway flux; oxygen stability, for operation of air sensitive enzymes under aerobic conditions; and anaerobic activity, for operation of an aerobic enzyme in the absence of oxygen.

Described below in more detail are exemplary methods that have been developed for the mutagenesis and diversification of genes to target desired properties of specific enzymes. Such methods are well known to those skilled in the art. Any of these can be used to alter and/or optimize the activity of a butadiene pathway enzyme or protein.

EpPCR (Pritchard et al., J Theor. Biol. 234:497-509 (2005)) introduces random point mutations by reducing the fidelity of DNA polymerase in PCR reactions by the addition of Mn²⁺ ions, by biasing dNTP concentrations, or by other conditional variations. The five step cloning process to confine the mutagenesis to the target gene of interest involves: 1) error-prone PCR amplification of the gene of interest; 2) restriction enzyme digestion; 3) gel purification of the desired DNA fragment; 4) ligation into a vector; 5) transformation of the gene variants into a suitable host and screening of the library for improved performance. This method can generate multiple mutations in a single gene simultaneously, which can be useful to screen a larger number of potential variants having a desired activity. A high number of mutants can be generated by EpPCR, so a high-throughput screening assay or a selection method, for example, using robotics, is useful to identify those with desirable characteristics.

Error-prone Rolling Circle Amplification (epRCA) (Fujii et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 32:e145 (2004); and Fujii et al., Nat. Protoc. 1:2493-2497 (2006)) has many of the same elements as epPCR except a whole circular plasmid is used as the template and random 6-mers with exonuclease resistant thiophosphate linkages on the last 2 nucleotides are used to amplify the plasmid followed by transformation into cells in which the plasmid is re-circularized at tandem repeats. Adjusting the Mn²⁺ concentration can vary the mutation rate somewhat. This technique uses a simple error-prone, single-step method to create a full copy of the plasmid with 3-4 mutations/kbp. No restriction enzyme digestion or specific primers are required. Additionally, this method is typically available as a commercially available kit.

DNA or Family Shuffling (Stemmer, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91:10747-10751 (1994)); and Stemmer, Nature 370:389-391 (1994)) typically involves digestion of two or more variant genes with nucleases such as Dnase I or EndoV to generate a pool of random fragments that are reassembled by cycles of annealing and extension in the presence of DNA polymerase to create a library of chimeric genes. Fragments prime each other and recombination occurs when one copy primes another copy (template switch). This method can be used with >1 kbp DNA sequences. In addition to mutational recombinants created by fragment reassembly, this method introduces point mutations in the extension steps at a rate similar to error-prone PCR. The method can be used to remove deleterious, random and neutral mutations.

Staggered Extension (StEP) (Zhao et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 16:258-261 (1998)) entails template priming followed by repeated cycles of 2 step PCR with denaturation and very short duration of annealing/extension (as short as 5 sec). Growing fragments anneal to different templates and extend further, which is repeated until full-length sequences are made. Template switching means most resulting fragments have multiple parents. Combinations of low-fidelity polymerases (Taq and Mutazyme) reduce error-prone biases because of opposite mutational spectra.

In Random Priming Recombination (RPR) random sequence primers are used to generate many short DNA fragments complementary to different segments of the template (Shao et al., Nucleic Acids Res 26:681-683 (1998)). Base misincorporation and mispriming via epPCR give point mutations. Short DNA fragments prime one another based on homology and are recombined and reassembled into full-length by repeated thermocycling. Removal of templates prior to this step assures low parental recombinants. This method, like most others, can be performed over multiple iterations to evolve distinct properties. This technology avoids sequence bias, is independent of gene length, and requires very little parent DNA for the application.

In Heteroduplex Recombination linearized plasmid DNA is used to form heteroduplexes that are repaired by mismatch repair (Volkov et al, Nucleic Acids Res. 27:e18 (1999); and Volkov et al., Methods Enzymol. 328:456-463 (2000)). The mismatch repair step is at least somewhat mutagenic. Heteroduplexes transform more efficiently than linear homoduplexes. This method is suitable for large genes and whole operons.

Random Chimeragenesis on Transient Templates (RACHITT) (Coco et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 19:354-359 (2001)) employs Dnase I fragmentation and size fractionation of single stranded DNA (ssDNA). Homologous fragments are hybridized in the absence of polymerase to a complementary ssDNA scaffold. Any overlapping unhybridized fragment ends are trimmed down by an exonuclease. Gaps between fragments are filled in and then ligated to give a pool of full-length diverse strands hybridized to the scaffold, which contains U to preclude amplification. The scaffold then is destroyed and is replaced by a new strand complementary to the diverse strand by PCR amplification. The method involves one strand (scaffold) that is from only one parent while the priming fragments derive from other genes; the parent scaffold is selected against. Thus, no reannealing with parental fragments occurs. Overlapping fragments are trimmed with an exonuclease. Otherwise, this is conceptually similar to DNA shuffling and StEP. Therefore, there should be no siblings, few inactives, and no unshuffled parentals. This technique has advantages in that few or no parental genes are created and many more crossovers can result relative to standard DNA shuffling.

Recombined Extension on Truncated templates (RETT) entails template switching of unidirectionally growing strands from primers in the presence of unidirectional ssDNA fragments used as a pool of templates (Lee et al., J. Molec. Catalysis 26:119-129 (2003)). No DNA endonucleases are used. Unidirectional ssDNA is made by DNA polymerase with random primers or serial deletion with exonuclease. Unidirectional ssDNA are only templates and not primers. Random priming and exonucleases do not introduce sequence bias as true of enzymatic cleavage of DNA shuffling/RACHITT. RETT can be easier to optimize than StEP because it uses normal PCR conditions instead of very short extensions. Recombination occurs as a component of the PCR steps, that is, no direct shuffling. This method can also be more random than StEP due to the absence of pauses.

In Degenerate Oligonucleotide Gene Shuffling (DOGS) degenerate primers are used to control recombination between molecules; (Bergquist and Gibbs, Methods Mol.Biol 352:191-204 (2007); Bergquist et al., Biomol. Eng 22:63-72 (2005); Gibbs et al., Gene 271:13-20 (2001)) this can be used to control the tendency of other methods such as DNA shuffling to regenerate parental genes. This method can be combined with random mutagenesis (epPCR) of selected gene segments. This can be a good method to block the reformation of parental sequences. No endonucleases are needed. By adjusting input concentrations of segments made, one can bias towards a desired backbone. This method allows DNA shuffling from unrelated parents without restriction enzyme digests and allows a choice of random mutagenesis methods.

Incremental Truncation for the Creation of Hybrid Enzymes (ITCHY) creates a combinatorial library with 1 base pair deletions of a gene or gene fragment of interest (Ostermeier et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:3562-3567 (1999); and Ostermeier et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 17:1205-1209 (1999)). Truncations are introduced in opposite direction on pieces of 2 different genes. These are ligated together and the fusions are cloned. This technique does not require homology between the 2 parental genes. When ITCHY is combined with DNA shuffling, the system is called SCRATCHY (see below). A major advantage of both is no need for homology between parental genes; for example, functional fusions between an E. coli and a human gene were created via ITCHY. When ITCHY libraries are made, all possible crossovers are captured.

Thio-Incremental Truncation for the Creation of Hybrid Enzymes (THIO-ITCHY) is similar to ITCHY except that phosphothioate dNTPs are used to generate truncations (Lutz et al., Nucleic Acids Res 29:E16 (2001)). Relative to ITCHY, THIO-ITCHY can be easier to optimize, provide more reproducibility, and adjustability.

SCRATCHY combines two methods for recombining genes, ITCHY and DNA shuffling (Lutz et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98:11248-11253 (2001)). SCRATCHY combines the best features of ITCHY and DNA shuffling. First, ITCHY is used to create a comprehensive set of fusions between fragments of genes in a DNA homology-independent fashion. This artificial family is then subjected to a DNA-shuffling step to augment the number of crossovers. Computational predictions can be used in optimization. SCRATCHY is more effective than DNA shuffling when sequence identity is below 80%.

In Random Drift Mutagenesis (RNDM) mutations made via epPCR followed by screening/selection for those retaining usable activity (Bergquist et al., Biomol. Eng. 22:63-72 (2005)). Then, these are used in DOGS to generate recombinants with fusions between multiple active mutants or between active mutants and some other desirable parent. Designed to promote isolation of neutral mutations; its purpose is to screen for retained catalytic activity whether or not this activity is higher or lower than in the original gene. RNDM is usable in high throughput assays when screening is capable of detecting activity above background. RNDM has been used as a front end to DOGS in generating diversity. The technique imposes a requirement for activity prior to shuffling or other subsequent steps; neutral drift libraries are indicated to result in higher/quicker improvements in activity from smaller libraries. Though published using epPCR, this could be applied to other large-scale mutagenesis methods.

Sequence Saturation Mutagenesis (SeSaM) is a random mutagenesis method that: 1) generates a pool of random length fragments using random incorporation of a phosphothioate nucleotide and cleavage; this pool is used as a template to 2) extend in the presence of “universal” bases such as inosine; 3) replication of an inosine-containing complement gives random base incorporation and, consequently, mutagenesis (Wong et al., Biotechnol. J. 3:74-82 (2008); Wong et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 32:e26 (2004); and Wong et al., Anal. Biochem. 341:187-189 (2005)). Using this technique it can be possible to generate a large library of mutants within 2 to 3 days using simple methods. This technique is non-directed in comparison to the mutational bias of DNA polymerases. Differences in this approach makes this technique complementary (or an alternative) to epPCR.

In Synthetic Shuffling, overlapping oligonucleotides are designed to encode “all genetic diversity in targets” and allow a very high diversity for the shuffled progeny (Ness et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 20:1251-1255 (2002)). In this technique, one can design the fragments to be shuffled. This aids in increasing the resulting diversity of the progeny. One can design sequence/codon biases to make more distantly related sequences recombine at rates approaching those observed with more closely related sequences. Additionally, the technique does not require physically possessing the template genes.

Nucleotide Exchange and Excision Technology NexT exploits a combination of dUTP incorporation followed by treatment with uracil DNA glycosylase and then piperidine to perform endpoint DNA fragmentation (Muller et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 33:e117 (2005)). The gene is reassembled using internal PCR primer extension with proofreading polymerase. The sizes for shuffling are directly controllable using varying dUPT::dTTP ratios. This is an end point reaction using simple methods for uracil incorporation and cleavage. Other nucleotide analogs, such as 8-oxo-guanine, can be used with this method. Additionally, the technique works well with very short fragments (86 bp) and has a low error rate. The chemical cleavage of DNA used in this technique results in very few unshuffled clones.

In Sequence Homology-Independent Protein Recombination (SHIPREC), a linker is used to facilitate fusion between two distantly related or unrelated genes. Nuclease treatment is used to generate a range of chimeras between the two genes. These fusions result in libraries of single-crossover hybrids (Sieber et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 19:456-460 (2001)). This produces a limited type of shuffling and a separate process is required for mutagenesis. In addition, since no homology is needed, this technique can create a library of chimeras with varying fractions of each of the two unrelated parent genes. SHIPREC was tested with a heme-binding domain of a bacterial CP450 fused to N-terminal regions of a mammalian CP450; this produced mammalian activity in a more soluble enzyme.

In Gene Site Saturation Mutagenesis™ (GSSM™) the starting materials are a supercoiled dsDNA plasmid containing an insert and two primers which are degenerate at the desired site of mutations (Kretz et al., Methods Enzymol. 388:3-11 (2004)). Primers carrying the mutation of interest, anneal to the same sequence on opposite strands of DNA. The mutation is typically in the middle of the primer and flanked on each side by approximately 20 nucleotides of correct sequence. The sequence in the primer is NNN or NNK (coding) and MNN (noncoding) (N=all 4, K=G, T, M=A, C). After extension, Dpnl is used to digest dam-methylated DNA to eliminate the wild-type template. This technique explores all possible amino acid substitutions at a given locus (that is, one codon). The technique facilitates the generation of all possible replacements at a single-site with no nonsense codons and results in equal to near-equal representation of most possible alleles. This technique does not require prior knowledge of the structure, mechanism, or domains of the target enzyme. If followed by shuffling or Gene Reassembly, this technology creates a diverse library of recombinants containing all possible combinations of single-site up-mutations. The usefulness of this technology combination has been demonstrated for the successful evolution of over 50 different enzymes, and also for more than one property in a given enzyme.

Combinatorial Cassette Mutagenesis (CCM) involves the use of short oligonucleotide cassettes to replace limited regions with a large number of possible amino acid sequence alterations (Reidhaar-Olson et al. Methods Enzymol. 208:564-586 (1991); and Reidhaar-Olson et al. Science 241:53-57 (1988)). Simultaneous substitutions at two or three sites are possible using this technique. Additionally, the method tests a large multiplicity of possible sequence changes at a limited range of sites. This technique has been used to explore the information content of the lambda repressor DNA-binding domain.

Combinatorial Multiple Cassette Mutagenesis (CMCM) is essentially similar to CCM except it is employed as part of a larger program: 1) use of epPCR at high mutation rate to 2) identify hot spots and hot regions and then 3) extension by CMCM to cover a defined region of protein sequence space (Reetz et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed Engl. 40:3589-3591 (2001)). As with CCM, this method can test virtually all possible alterations over a target region. If used along with methods to create random mutations and shuffled genes, it provides an excellent means of generating diverse, shuffled proteins. This approach was successful in increasing, by 51-fold, the enantioselectivity of an enzyme.

In the Mutator Strains technique, conditional ts mutator plasmids allow increases of 20 to 4000-X in random and natural mutation frequency during selection and block accumulation of deleterious mutations when selection is not required (Selifonova et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67:3645-3649 (2001)). This technology is based on a plasmid-derived mutD5 gene, which encodes a mutant subunit of DNA polymerase III. This subunit binds to endogenous DNA polymerase III and compromises the proofreading ability of polymerase III in any strain that harbors the plasmid. A broad-spectrum of base substitutions and frameshift mutations occur. In order for effective use, the mutator plasmid should be removed once the desired phenotype is achieved; this is accomplished through a temperature sensitive (ts) origin of replication, which allows for plasmid curing at 41° C. It should be noted that mutator strains have been explored for quite some time (see Low et al., J. Mol. Biol. 260:359-3680 (1996)). In this technique, very high spontaneous mutation rates are observed. The conditional property minimizes non-desired background mutations. This technology could be combined with adaptive evolution to enhance mutagenesis rates and more rapidly achieve desired phenotypes.

Look-Through Mutagenesis (LTM) is a multidimensional mutagenesis method that assesses and optimizes combinatorial mutations of selected amino acids (Rajpal et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:8466-8471 (2005)). Rather than saturating each site with all possible amino acid changes, a set of nine is chosen to cover the range of amino acid R-group chemistry. Fewer changes per site allows multiple sites to be subjected to this type of mutagenesis. A >800-fold increase in binding affinity for an antibody from low nanomolar to picomolar has been achieved through this method. This is a rational approach to minimize the number of random combinations and can increase the ability to find improved traits by greatly decreasing the numbers of clones to be screened. This has been applied to antibody engineering, specifically to increase the binding affinity and/or reduce dissociation. The technique can be combined with either screens or selections.

Gene Reassembly is a DNA shuffling method that can be applied to multiple genes at one time or to create a large library of chimeras (multiple mutations) of a single gene (Tunable GeneReassembly™ (TGR™) Technology supplied by Verenium Corporation). Typically this technology is used in combination with ultra-high-throughput screening to query the represented sequence space for desired improvements. This technique allows multiple gene recombination independent of homology. The exact number and position of cross-over events can be pre-determined using fragments designed via bioinformatic analysis. This technology leads to a very high level of diversity with virtually no parental gene reformation and a low level of inactive genes. Combined with GSSMTM, a large range of mutations can be tested for improved activity. The method allows “blending” and “fine tuning” of DNA shuffling, for example, codon usage can be optimized.

In Silico Protein Design Automation (PDA) is an optimization algorithm that anchors the structurally defined protein backbone possessing a particular fold, and searches sequence space for amino acid substitutions that can stabilize the fold and overall protein energetics (Hayes et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:15926-15931 (2002)). This technology uses in silico structure-based entropy predictions in order to search for structural tolerance toward protein amino acid variations. Statistical mechanics is applied to calculate coupling interactions at each position. Structural tolerance toward amino acid substitution is a measure of coupling. Ultimately, this technology is designed to yield desired modifications of protein properties while maintaining the integrity of structural characteristics. The method computationally assesses and allows filtering of a very large number of possible sequence variants (1050). The choice of sequence variants to test is related to predictions based on the most favorable thermodynamics. Ostensibly only stability or properties that are linked to stability can be effectively addressed with this technology. The method has been successfully used in some therapeutic proteins, especially in engineering immunoglobulins. In silico predictions avoid testing extraordinarily large numbers of potential variants. Predictions based on existing three-dimensional structures are more likely to succeed than predictions based on hypothetical structures. This technology can readily predict and allow targeted screening of multiple simultaneous mutations, something not possible with purely experimental technologies due to exponential increases in numbers.

Iterative Saturation Mutagenesis (ISM) involves: 1) using knowledge of structure/function to choose a likely site for enzyme improvement; 2) performing saturation mutagenesis at chosen site using a mutagenesis method such as Stratagene QuikChange (Stratagene; San Diego Calif.); 3) screening/selecting for desired properties; and 4) using improved clone(s), start over at another site and continue repeating until a desired activity is achieved (Reetz et al., Nat. Protoc. 2:891-903 (2007); and Reetz et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed Engl. 45:7745-7751 (2006)). This is a proven methodology, which assures all possible replacements at a given position are made for screening/selection.

Any of the aforementioned methods for mutagenesis can be used alone or in any combination. Additionally, any one or combination of the directed evolution methods can be used in conjunction with adaptive evolution techniques, as described herein.

It is understood that modifications which do not substantially affect the activity of the various embodiments of this invention are also provided within the definition of the invention provided herein. Accordingly, the following examples are intended to illustrate but not limit the present invention.

EXAMPLE I Pathways for Producing Butadiene

Disclosed herein are novel processes for the direct production of butadiene using engineered non-natural microorganisms that possess the enzymes necessary for conversion of common metabolites into the four carbon diene, 1,3-butadiene. One novel route to direct production of butadiene entails reduction of the known butanol pathway metabolite crotonyl-CoA to crotyl alcohol via reduction with aldehyde and alcohol dehydrogenases, followed by phosphorylation with kinases to afford crotyl pyrophosphate and subsequent conversion to butadiene using isoprene synthases or variants thereof (see FIG. 2). Another route (FIG. 3) is a variant of the well-characterized DXP pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis. In this route, the substrate lacks a 2-methyl group and provides butadiene rather than isoprene via a butadiene synthase. Such a butadiene synthase can be derived from a isoprene synthase using methods, such as directed evolution, as described herein. Finally, FIG. 4 shows a pathway to butadiene involving the substrate 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, which serves as a surrogate for the natural mevalonate pathway substrate 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA (shown in FIG. 1). Enzyme candidates for steps A-P of FIG. 2, steps A-K of FIG. 3 and steps A-O of FIG. 4 are provided below.

Acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase (FIG. 2, Step A)

Acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase converts two molecules of acetyl-CoA into one molecule each of acetoacetyl-CoA and CoA. Exemplary acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase enzymes include the gene products of atoB from E. coli (Martin et al., Nat. Biotechnol 21:796-802 (2003)), thlA and thlB from C. acetobutylicum (Hanai et al., Appl Environ Microbiol 73:7814-7818 (2007); Winzer et al., J. Mol. Microbiol Biotechnol 2:531-541 (2000)), and ERG10 from S. cerevisiae (Hiser et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269:31383-31389 (1994)).

Protein GenBank ID GI number Organism AtoB NP_416728 16130161 Escherichia coli ThlA NP_349476.1 15896127 Clostridium acetobutylicum ThlB NP_149242.1 15004782 Clostridium acetobutylicum ERG10 NP_015297 6325229 Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Acetoacetyl-CoA Reductase (FIG. 2, Step B)

Acetoacetyl-CoA reductase catalyzing the reduction of acetoacetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA participates in the acetyl-CoA fermentation pathway to butyrate in several species of Clostridia and has been studied in detail (Jones et al., Microbiol Rev. 50:484-524 (1986)). The enzyme from Clostridium acetobutylicum, encoded by hbd, has been cloned and functionally expressed in E. coli (Youngleson et al., J Bacteriol. 171:6800-6807 (1989)). Additionally, subunits of two fatty acid oxidation complexes in E. coli, encoded by fadB and fadJ, function as 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenases (Binstock et al., Methods Enzymol. 71 Pt C:403-411 (1981)). Yet other gene candidates demonstrated to reduce acetoacetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA are phbB from Zoogloea ramigera (Ploux et al., Eur. J Biochem. 174:177-182 (1988)) and phaB from Rhodobacter sphaeroides (Alber et al., Mol. Microbiol 61:297-309 (2006)). The former gene candidate is NADPH-dependent, its nucleotide sequence has been determined (Peoples et al., Mol. Microbiol 3:349-357 (1989)) and the gene has been expressed in E. coli. Substrate specificity studies on the gene led to the conclusion that it could accept 3-oxopropionyl-CoA as a substrate besides acetoacetyl-CoA (Ploux et al., supra, (1988)). Additional gene candidates include Hbd1 (C-terminal domain) and Hbd2 (N-terminal domain) in Clostridium kluyveri (Hillmer and Gottschalk, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 3334:12-23 (1974)) and HSD17B10 in Bos taurus (WAKIL et al., J Biol. Chem. 207:631-638 (1954)).

Protein Genbank ID GI number Organism fadB P21177.2 119811 Escherichia coli fadJ P77399.1 3334437 Escherichia coli Hbd2 EDK34807.1 146348271 Clostridium kluyveri Hbd1 EDK32512.1 146345976 Clostridium kluyveri hbd P52041.2 18266893 Clostridium acetobutylicum HSD17B10 O02691.3 3183024 Bos Taurus phbB P23238.1 130017 Zoogloea ramigera phaB YP_353825.1 77464321 Rhodobacter sphaeroides

A number of similar enzymes have been found in other species of Clostridia and in Metallosphaera sedula (Berg et al., Science. 318:1782-1786 (2007)).

Protein GenBank ID GI number Organism hbd NP_349314.1 NP_349314.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum hbd AAM14586.1 AAM14586.1 Clostridium beijerinckii Msed_1423 YP_001191505 YP_001191505 Metallosphaera sedula Msed_0399 YP_001190500 YP_001190500 Metallosphaera sedula Msed_0389 YP_001190490 YP_001190490 Metallosphaera sedula Msed_1993 YP_001192057 YP_001192057 Metallosphaera sedula

3-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA Dehydratase (FIG. 2, Step C)

3-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase (EC 4.2.1.55), also called crotonase, is an enoyl-CoA hydratase that reversibly dehydrates 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to form crotonyl-CoA. Crotonase enzymes are required for n-butanol formation in some organisms, particularly Clostridial species, and also comprise one step of the 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycle in thermoacidophilic Archaea of the genera Sulfolobus, Acidianus, and Metallosphaera. Exemplary genes encoding crotonase enzymes can be found in C. acetobutylicum (Atsumi et al., Metab Eng. 10:305-311 (2008); Boynton et al., J Bacteriol. 178:3015-3024 (1996)), C. kluyveri (Hillmer et al., FEBS Lett. 21:351-354 (1972)), and Metallosphaera sedula (Berg et al., Science 318:1782-1786 (2007a)) though the sequence of the latter gene is not known. The enoyl-CoA hydratase of Pseudomonas putida, encoded by ech, catalyzes the conversion of crotonyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA (Roberts et al., Arch Microbiol. 117:99-108 (1978)). Additional enoyl-CoA hydratase candidates are phaA and phaB, of P. putida, and paaA and paaB from P. fluorescens (Olivera et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U.S.A 95:6419-6424 (1998)). Lastly, a number of Escherichia coli genes have been shown to demonstrate enoyl-CoA hydratase functionality including maoC (Park et al., J Bacteriol. 185:5391-5397 (2003)), paaF (Ismail et al., Eur. J Biochem. 270:3047-3054 (2003); Park et al., Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol 113-116:335-346 (2004); Park et al., Biotechnol Bioeng 86:681-686 (2004)) and paaG (Ismail et al., supra, (2003); Park and Lee, supra, (2004); Park and Yup, supra, (2004)). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism crt NP_349318.1 15895969 Clostridium acetobutylicum crt1 YP_001393856.1 153953091 Clostridium kluyveri ech NP_745498.1 26990073 Pseudomonas putida paaA NP_745427.1 26990002 Pseudomonas putida paaB NP_745426.1 26990001 Pseudomonas putida phaA ABF82233.1 106636093 Pseudomonas fluorescens phaB ABF82234.1 106636094 Pseudomonas fluorescens maoC NP_415905.1 16129348 Escherichia coli paaF NP_415911.1 16129354 Escherichia coli paaG NP_415912.1 16129355 Escherichia coli

Crotonyl-CoA Reductase (Aldehyde Forming) (FIG. 2, Step D)

Several acyl-CoA dehydrogenases are capable of reducing an acyl-CoA to its corresponding aldehyde. Thus they can naturally reduce crotonyl-CoA to crotonaldehyde or can be engineered to do so. Exemplary genes that encode such enzymes include the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus acr1 encoding a fatty acyl-CoA reductase (Reiser et al., J. Bacteriol. 179:2969-2975 (1997)), the Acinetobacter sp. M-1 fatty acyl-CoA reductase (Ishige et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 68:1192-1195 (2002)), and a CoA- and NADP-dependent succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase encoded by the sucD gene in Clostridium kluyveri (Sohling et al., J Bacteriol. 178:871-880 (1996); Sohling et al., J. Bacteriol. 178:871-80 (1996))). SucD of P. gingivalis is another succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase (Takahashi et al., J. Bacteriol. 182:4704-4710 (2000)). These succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenases were specifically shown in ref. (Burk et al., WO/2008/115840: (2008)) to convert 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to 4-hydroxybutanal as part of a pathway to produce 1,4-butanediol. The enzyme acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in Pseudomonas sp, encoded by bphG, is yet another capable enzyme as it has been demonstrated to oxidize and acylate acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, isobutyraldehyde and formaldehyde (Powlowski et al., J. Bacteriol. 175:377-385 (1993)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism acr1 YP_047869.1 50086359 Acinetobacter calcoaceticus acr1 AAC45217 1684886 Acinetobacter baylyi acr1 BAB85476.1 18857901 Acinetobacter sp. Strain M-1 sucD P38947.1 172046062 Clostridium kluyveri sucD NP_904963.1 34540484 Porphyromonas gingivalis bphG BAA03892.1 425213 Pseudomonas sp

An additional enzyme type that converts an acyl-CoA to its corresponding aldehyde is malonyl-CoA reductase which transforms malonyl-CoA to malonic semialdehyde. Malonyl-CoA reductase is a key enzyme in autotrophic carbon fixation via the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle in thermoacidophilic archael bacteria (Berg et al., Science 318:1782-1786 (2007b); Thauer, 318:1732-1733 (2007)). The enzyme utilizes NADPH as a cofactor and has been characterized in Metallosphaera and Sulfolobus spp (Alber et al., J. Bacteriol. 188:8551-8559 (2006); Hugler et al., J. Bacteriol. 184:2404-2410 (2002)). The enzyme is encoded by Msed_0709 in Metallosphaera sedula (Alber et al., supra, (2006); Berg et al., supra, (2007b)). A gene encoding a malonyl-CoA reductase from Sulfolobus tokodaii was cloned and heterologously expressed in E. coli (Alber et al., supra, (2006)). Although the aldehyde dehydrogenase functionality of these enzymes is similar to the bifunctional dehydrogenase from Chloroflexus aurantiacus, there is little sequence similarity. Both malonyl-CoA reductase enzyme candidates have high sequence similarity to aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase, an enzyme catalyzing the reduction and concurrent dephosphorylation of aspartyl-4-phosphate to aspartate semialdehyde. Additional gene candidates can be found by sequence homology to proteins in other organisms including Sulfolobus solfataricus and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. Yet another candidate for CoA-acylating aldehyde dehydrogenase is the ald gene from Clostridium beijerinckii (Toth, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65:4973-4980 (1999). This enzyme has been reported to reduce acetyl-CoA and butyryl-CoA to their corresponding aldehydes. This gene is very similar to eutE that encodes acetaldehyde dehydrogenase of Salmonella typhimurium and E. coli (Toth, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65:4973-4980 (1999). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism Msed_0709 YP_001190808.1 146303492 Metallosphaera sedula Mcr NP_378167.1 15922498 Sulfolobus tokodaii asd-2 NP_343563.1 15898958 Sulfolobus solfataricus Saci_2370 YP_256941.1 70608071 Sulfolobus acidocaldarius Ald AAT66436 49473535 Clostridium beijerinckii eutE AAA80209 687645 Salmonella typhimurium eutE P77445 2498347 Escherichia coli

Crotonaldehyde Reductase (Alcohol Forming) (FIG. 2, Step E)

Enzymes exhibiting crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming) activity are capable of forming crotyl alcohol from crotonaldehyde. The following enzymes can naturally possess this activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Exemplary genes encoding enzymes that catalyze the conversion of an aldehyde to alcohol (i.e., alcohol dehydrogenase or equivalently aldehyde reductase) include alrA encoding a medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase for C2-C14 (Tani et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 66:5231-5235 (2000)), ADH2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Atsumi et al., Nature 451:86-89 (2008)), yqhD from E. coli which has preference for molecules longer than C(3) (Sulzenbacher et al., J. Mol. Biol. 342:489-502 (2004)), and bdh I and bdh II from C. acetobutylicum which converts butyraldehyde into butanol (Walter et al., J. Bacteriol. 174:7149-7158 (1992)). ADH1 from Zymomonas mobilis has been demonstrated to have activity on a number of aldehydes including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, and acrolein (Kinoshita, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 22:249-254 (1985)). Cbei_2181 from Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 encodes yet another useful alcohol dehydrogenase capable of converting crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism alrA BAB12273.1 9967138 Acinetobacter sp. Strain M-1 ADH2 NP_014032.1 6323961 Saccharomyces cerevisiae yqhD NP_417484.1 16130909 Escherichia coli bdh I NP_349892.1 15896543 Clostridium acetobutylicum bdh II NP_349891.1 15896542 Clostridium acetobutylicum adhA YP_162971.1 56552132 Zymomonas mobilis Cbei_2181 YP_001309304.1 150017050 Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052

Enzymes exhibiting 4-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase activity (EC 1.1.1.61) also fall into this category. Such enzymes have been characterized in Ralstonia eutropha (Bravo et al., J. Forensic Sci. 49:379-387 (2004)), Clostridium kluyveri (Wolff et al., Protein Expr. Purif. 6:206-212 (1995)) and Arabidopsis thaliana (Breitkreuz et al., J. Biol. Chem. 278:41552-41556 (2003)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism 4hbd YP_726053.1 113867564 Ralstonia eutropha H16 4hbd L21902.1 146348486 Clostridium kluyveri DSM 555 4hbd Q94B07 75249805 Arabidopsis thaliana

Crotyl Alcohol Kinase (FIG. 2, Step F)

Crotyl alcohol kinase enzymes catalyze the transfer of a phosphate group to the hydroxyl group of crotyl alcohol. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Kinases that catalyze transfer of a phosphate group to an alcohol group are members of the EC 2.7.1 enzyme class. The table below lists several useful kinase enzymes in the EC 2.7.1 enzyme class.

Enzyme Commission Number Enzyme Name 2.7.1.1 hexokinase 2.7.1.2 glucokinase 2.7.1.3 ketohexokinase 2.7.1.4 fructokinase 2.7.1.5 rhamnulokinase 2.7.1.6 galactokinase 2.7.1.7 mannokinase 2.7.1.8 glucosamine kinase 2.7.1.10 phosphoglucokinase 2.7.1.11 6-phosphofructokinase 2.7.1.12 gluconokinase 2.7.1.13 dehydrogluconokinase 2.7.1.14 sedoheptulokinase 2.7.1.15 ribokinase 2.7.1.16 ribulokinase 2.7.1.17 xylulokinase 2.7.1.18 phosphoribokinase 2.7.1.19 phosphoribulokinase 2.7.1.20 adenosine kinase 2.7.1.21 thymidine kinase 2.7.1.22 ribosylnicotinamide kinase 2.7.1.23 NAD+ kinase 2.7.1.24 dephospho-CoA kinase 2.7.1.25 adenylyl-sulfate kinase 2.7.1.26 riboflavin kinase 2.7.1.27 erythritol kinase 2.7.1.28 triokinase 2.7.1.29 glycerone kinase 2.7.1.30 glycerol kinase 2.7.1.31 glycerate kinase 2.7.1.32 choline kinase 2.7.1.33 pantothenate kinase 2.7.1.34 pantetheine kinase 2.7.1.35 pyridoxal kinase 2.7.1.36 mevalonate kinase 2.7.1.39 homoserine kinase 2.7.1.40 pyruvate kinase 2.7.1.41 glucose-1-phosphate phosphodismutase 2.7.1.42 riboflavin phosphotransferase 2.7.1.43 glucuronokinase 2.7.1.44 galacturonokinase 2.7.1.45 2-dehydro-3-deoxy gluconokinase 2.7.1.46 L-arabinokinase 2.7.1.47 D-ribulokinase 2.7.1.48 uridine kinase 2.7.1.49 hydroxymethylpyrimidine kinase 2.7.1.50 hydroxyethylthiazole kinase 2.7.1.51 L-fuculokinase 2.7.1.52 fucokinase 2.7.1.53 L-xylulokinase 2.7.1.54 D-arabinokinase 2.7.1.55 allose kinase 2.7.1.56 1-phosphofructokinase 2.7.1.58 2-dehydro-3-deoxygalactonokinase 2.7.1.59 N-acetylglucosamine kinase 2.7.1.60 N-acylmannosamine kinase 2.7.1.61 acyl-phosphate-hexose phosphotransferase 2.7.1.62 phosphoramidate-hexose phosphotransferase 2.7.1.63 polyphosphate-glucose phosphotransferase 2.7.1.64 inositol 3-kinase 2.7.1.65 scyllo-inosamine 4-kinase 2.7.1.66 undecaprenol kinase 2.7.1.67 1-phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase 2.7.1.68 1-phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase 2.7.1.69 protein-Np-phosphohistidine-sugar phosphotransferase 2.7.1.70 identical to EC 2.7.1.37. 2.7.1.71 shikimate kinase 2.7.1.72 streptomycin 6-kinase 2.7.1.73 inosine kinase 2.7.1.74 deoxycytidine kinase 2.7.1.76 deoxyadenosine kinase 2.7.1.77 nucleoside phosphotransferase 2.7.1.78 polynucleotide 5′-hydroxyl-kinase 2.7.1.79 diphosphate-glycerol phosphotransferase 2.7.1.80 diphosphate-serine phosphotransferase 2.7.1.81 hydroxylysine kinase 2.7.1.82 ethanolamine kinase 2.7.1.83 pseudouridine kinase 2.7.1.84 alkylglycerone kinase 2.7.1.85 β-glucoside kinase 2.7.1.86 NADH kinase 2.7.1.87 streptomycin 3″-kinase 2.7.1.88 dihydrostreptomycin-6-phophate 3′a-kinase 2.7.1.89 thiamine kinase 2.7.1.90 diphosphate-fructose-6-phosphate 1-phosphotransferase 2.7.1.91 sphinganine kinase 2.7.1.92 5-dehydro-2-deoxygluconokinase 2.7.1.93 alkylglycerol kinase 2.7.1.94 acylglycerol kinase 2.7.1.95 kanamycin kinase 2.7.1.100 S-methyl-5-thioribose kinase 2.7.1.101 tagatose kinase 2.7.1.102 hamamelose kinase 2.7.1.103 viomycin kinase 2.7.1.105 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase 2.7.1.106 glucose-1,6-bisphosphate synthase 2.7.1.107 diacylglycerol kinase 2.7.1.108 dolichol kinase 2.7.1.113 deoxyguanosine kinase 2.7.1.114 AMP-thymidine kinase 2.7.1.118 ADP-thymidine kinase 2.7.1.119 hygromycin-B 7″-O-kinase 2.7.1.121 phosphoenolpyruvate-glycerone phosphotransferase 2.7.1.122 xylitol kinase 2.7.1.127 inositol-trisphosphate 3-kinase 2.7.1.130 tetraacyldisaccharide 4′-kinase 2.7.1.134 inositol-tetrakisphosphate 1-kinase 2.7.1.136 macrolide 2′-kinase 2.7.1.137 phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase 2.7.1.138 ceramide kinase 2.7.1.140 inositol-tetrakisphosphate 5-kinase 2.7.1.142 glycerol-3-phosphate-glucose phosphotransferase 2.7.1.143 diphosphate-purine nucleoside kinase 2.7.1.144 tagatose-6-phosphate kinase 2.7.1.145 deoxynucleoside kinase 2.7.1.146 ADP-dependent phosphofructokinase 2.7.1.147 ADP-dependent glucokinase 2.7.1.148 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol kinase 2.7.1.149 1-phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinase 2.7.1.150 1-phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate 5-kinase 2.7.1.151 inositol-polyphosphate multikinase 2.7.1.153 phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase 2.7.1.154 phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 3-kinase 2.7.1.156 adenosylcobinamide kinase 2.7.1.157 N-acetylgalactosamine kinase 2.7.1.158 inositol-pentakisphosphate 2-kinase 2.7.1.159 inositol-1,3,4-trisphosphate 5/6-kinase 2.7.1.160 2′-phosphotransferase 2.7.1.161 CTP-dependent riboflavin kinase 2.7.1.162 N-acetylhexosamine 1-kinase 2.7.1.163 hygromycin B 4-O-kinase 2.7.1.164 O-phosphoseryl-tRNASec kinase

A good candidate for this step is mevalonate kinase (EC 2.7.1.36) that phosphorylates the terminal hydroxyl group of the methyl analog, mevalonate, of 3,5-dihydroxypentanote. Some gene candidates for this step are erg12 from S. cerevisiae, mvk from Methanocaldococcus jannaschi, MVK from Homo sapeins, and mvk from Arabidopsis thaliana col.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism erg12 CAA39359.1 3684 Sachharomyces cerevisiae mvk Q58487.1 2497517 Methanocaldococcus jannaschii mvk AAH16140.1 16359371 Homo sapiens M\mvk NP_851084.1 30690651 Arabidopsis thaliana

Glycerol kinase also phosphorylates the terminal hydroxyl group in glycerol to form glycerol-3-phosphate. This reaction occurs in several species, including Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Thermotoga maritima. The E. coli glycerol kinase has been shown to accept alternate substrates such as dihydroxyacetone and glyceraldehyde (Hayashi et al., J. Biol. Chem. 242:1030-1035 (1967)). T, maritime has two glycerol kinases (Nelson et al., Nature 399:323-329 (1999)). Glycerol kinases have been shown to have a wide range of substrate specificity. Crans and Whiteside studied glycerol kinases from four different organisms (Escherichia coli, S. cerevisiae, Bacillus stearothermophilus, and Candida mycoderma) (Crans et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107:7008-7018 (2010); Nelson et al., supra, (1999)). They studied 66 different analogs of glycerol and concluded that the enzyme could accept a range of substituents in place of one terminal hydroxyl group and that the hydrogen atom at C2 could be replaced by a methyl group. Interestingly, the kinetic constants of the enzyme from all four organisms were very similar. The gene candidates are:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism glpK AP_003883.1 89110103 Escherichia coli K12 glpK1 NP_228760.1 15642775 Thermotoga maritime MSB8 glpK2 NP_229230.1 15642775 Thermotoga maritime MSB8 Gut1 NP_011831.1 82795252 Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Homoserine kinase is another possible candidate that can lead to the phosphorylation of 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate. This enzyme is also present in a number of organisms including E. coli, Streptomyces sp, and S. cerevisiae. Homoserine kinase from E. coli has been shown to have activity on numerous substrates, including, L-2-amino,1,4-butanediol, aspartate semialdehyde, and 2-amino-5-hydroxyvalerate (Huo et al., Biochemistry 35:16180-16185 (1996); Huo et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 330:373-379 (1996)). This enzyme can act on substrates where the carboxyl group at the alpha position has been replaced by an ester or by a hydroxymethyl group. The gene candidates are:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism thrB BAB96580.2 85674277 Escherichia coli K12 SACT1DRAFT_4809 ZP_06280784.1 282871792 Streptomyces sp. ACT-1 Thr1 AAA35154.1 172978 Saccharomyces serevisiae 2-Butenyl-4-phosphate Kinase (FIG. 2, Step G)

2-Butenyl-4-phosphate kinase enzymes catalyze the transfer of a phosphate group to the phosphate group of 2-butenyl-4-phosphate. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Kinases that catalyze transfer of a phosphate group to another phosphate group are members of the EC 2.7.4 enzyme class. The table below lists several useful kinase enzymes in the EC 2.7.4 enzyme class.

Enzyme Commission Number Enzyme Name 2.7.4.1 polyphosphate kinase 2.7.4.2 phosphomevalonate kinase 2.7.4.3 adenylate kinase 2.7.4.4 nucleoside-phosphate kinase 2.7.4.6 nucleoside-diphosphate kinase 2.7.4.7 phosphomethylpyrimidine kinase 2.7.4.8 guanylate kinase 2.7.4.9 dTMP kinase 2.7.4.10 nucleoside-triphosphate-adenylate kinase 2.7.4.11 (deoxy)adenylate kinase 2.7.4.12 T2-induced deoxynucleotide kinase 2.7.4.13 (deoxy)nucleoside-phosphate kinase 2.7.4.14 cytidylate kinase 2.7.4.15 thiamine-diphosphate kinase 2.7.4.16 thiamine-phosphate kinase 2.7.4.17 3-phosphoglyceroyl-phosphate-polyphosphate phosphotransferase 2.7.4.18 farnesyl-diphosphate kinase 2.7.4.19 5-methyldeoxycytidine-5′-phosphate kinase 2.7.4.20 dolichyl-diphosphate-polyphosphate phosphotransferase 2.7.4.21 inositol-hexakisphosphate kinase 2.7.4.22 UMP kinase 2.7.4.23 ribose 1,5-bisphosphate phosphokinase 2.7.4.24 diphosphoinositol-pentakisphosphate kinase

Phosphomevalonate kinase enzymes are of particular interest. Phosphomevalonate kinase (EC 2.7.4.2) catalyzes the analogous transformation to 2-butenyl-4-phosphate kinase. This enzyme is encoded by erg8 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Tsay et al., Mol. Cell Biol. 11:620-631 (1991)) and mvaK2 in Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis (Doun et al., Protein Sci. 14:1134-1139 (2005); Wilding et al., J Bacteriol. 182:4319-4327 (2000)). The Streptococcus pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecalis enzymes were cloned and characterized in E. coli (Pilloff et al., J Biol. Chem. 278:4510-4515 (2003); Doun et al., Protein Sci. 14:1134-1139 (2005)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism Erg8 AAA34596.1 171479 Saccharomyces cerevisiae mvaK2 AAG02426.1 9937366 Staphylococcus aureus mvaK2 AAG02457.1 9937409 Streptococcus pneumoniae mvaK2 AAG02442.1 9937388 Enterococcus faecalis

Butadiene Synthase (FIG. 2, Step H)

Butadiene synthase catalyzes the conversion of 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate to 1,3-butadiene. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Isoprene synthase naturally catalyzes the conversion of dimethylallyl diphosphate to isoprene, but can also catalyze the synthesis of 1,3-butadiene from 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate. Isoprene synthases can be found in several organisms including Populus alba (Sasaki et al., FEBS Letters, 2005, 579 (11), 2514-2518), Pueraria montana (Lindberg et al., Metabolic Eng, 2010, 12 (1), 70-79; Sharkey et al., Plant Physiol., 2005, 137 (2), 700-712), and Populus tremula x Populus alba (Miller et al., Planta, 2001, 213 (3), 483-487). Additional isoprene synthase enzymes are described in (Chotani et al., WO/2010/031079, Systems Using Cell Culture for Production of Isoprene; Cervin et al., US Patent Application 20100003716, Isoprene Synthase Variants for Improved Microbial Production of Isoprene).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispS BAD98243.1 63108310 Populus alba ispS AAQ84170.1 35187004 Pueraria montana ispS CAC35696.1 13539551 Populus tremula × Populus alba

Crotonyl-CoA Hydrolase, Synthetase, Transferase (FIG. 2, Step I)

Crotonyl-CoA hydrolase catalyzes the conversion of crotonyl-CoA to crotonate. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. 3-Hydroxyisobutyryl-CoA hydrolase efficiently catalyzes the conversion of 3-hydroxyisobutyryl-CoA to 3-hydroxyisobutyrate during valine degradation (Shimomura et al., J Biol Chem. 269:14248-14253 (1994)). Genes encoding this enzyme include hibch of Rattus norvegicus (Shimomura et al., supra; Shimomura et al., Methods Enzymol. 324:229-240 (2000)) and Homo sapiens (Shimomura et al., supra). The H. sapiens enzyme also accepts 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA and 3-hydroxypropionyl-CoA as substrates (Shimomura et al., supra). Candidate genes by sequence homology include hibch of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and BC_2292 of Bacillus cereus. These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism hibch Q5XIE6.2 146324906 Rattus norvegicus hibch Q6NVY1.2 146324905 Homo sapiens hibch P28817.2 2506374 Saccharomyces cerevisiae BC_2292 AP09256 29895975 Bacillus cereus

Several eukaryotic acetyl-CoA hydrolases (EC 3.1.2.1) have broad substrate specificity and thus represent suitable candidate enzymes. For example, the enzyme from Rattus norvegicus brain (Robinson et al., Res. Commun. 71:959-965 (1976)) can react with butyryl-CoA, hexanoyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA. Though its sequence has not been reported, the enzyme from the mitochondrion of the pea leaf also has a broad substrate specificity, with demonstrated activity on acetyl-CoA, propionyl-CoA, butyryl-CoA, palmitoyl-CoA, oleoyl-CoA, succinyl-CoA, and crotonyl-CoA (Zeiher et al., Plant. Physiol. 94:20-27 (1990)). The acetyl-CoA hydrolase, ACH1, from S. cerevisiae represents another candidate hydrolase (Buu et al., J. Biol. Chem. 278:17203-17209 (2003)) . These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism acot12 NP_570103.1 18543355 Rattus norvegicus ACH1 NP_009538 6319456 Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Another candidate hydrolase is the human dicarboxylic acid thioesterase, acot8, which exhibits activity on glutaryl-CoA, adipyl-CoA, suberyl-CoA, sebacyl-CoA, and dodecanedioyl-CoA (Westin et al., J Biol. Chem. 280:38125-38132 (2005)) and the closest E. coli homolog, tesB, which can also hydrolyze a broad range of CoA thioesters (Naggert et al., J Biol. Chem. 266:11044-11050 (1991)). A similar enzyme has also been characterized in the rat liver (Deana et al., Biochem. Int. 26:767-773 (1992)). Other potential E. coli thioester hydrolases include the gene products of tesA (Bonner et al., Chem. 247:3123-3133 (1972)), ybgC (Kuznetsova et al., FEMS Microbiol Rev 29:263-279 (2005); and (Zhuang et al., FEBS Lett. 516:161-163 (2002)), paal (Song et al., J Biol. Chem. 281:11028-11038 (2006)), and ybdB (Leduc et al., J Bacteriol. 189:7112-7126 (2007)). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism tesB NP_414986 16128437 Escherichia coli acot8 CAA15502 3191970 Homo sapiens acot8 NP_570112 51036669 Rattus norvegicus tesA NP_415027 16128478 Escherichia coli ybgC NP_415264 16128711 Escherichia coli paaI NP_415914 16129357 Escherichia coli ybdB NP_415129 16128580 Escherichia coli

Yet another candidate hydrolase is the glutaconate CoA-transferase from Acidaminococcus fermentans. This enzyme was transformed by site-directed mutagenesis into an acyl-CoA hydrolase with activity on glutaryl-CoA, acetyl-CoA and 3-butenoyl-CoA (Mack et al., FEBS. Lett. 405:209-212 (1997)). This suggests that the enzymes encoding succinyl-CoA:3-ketoacid-CoA transferases and acetoacetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA transferases can also serve as candidates for this reaction step but would require certain mutations to change their function. These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism gctA CAA57199 559392 Acidaminococcus fermentans gctB CAA57200 559393 Acidaminococcus fermentans

Crotonyl-CoA synthetase catalyzes the conversion of crotonyl-CoA to crotonate. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. One candidate enzyme, ADP-forming acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACD, EC 6.2.1.13), couples the conversion of acyl-CoA esters to their corresponding acids with the concurrent synthesis of ATP. Several enzymes with broad substrate specificities have been described in the literature. ACD I from Archaeoglobus fulgidus, encoded by AF1211, was shown to operate on a variety of linear and branched-chain substrates including acetyl-CoA, propionyl-CoA, butyryl-CoA, acetate, propionate, butyrate, isobutyryate, isovalerate, succinate, fumarate, phenylacetate, indoleacetate (Musfeldt et al., J Bacteriol 184:636-644 (2002)). The enzyme from Haloarcula marismortui (annotated as a succinyl-CoA synthetase) accepts propionate, butyrate, and branched-chain acids (isovalerate and isobutyrate) as substrates, and was shown to operate in the forward and reverse directions (Brasen et al., Arch Microbiol 182:277-287 (2004)). The ACD encoded by PAE3250 from hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon Pyrobaculum aerophilum showed the broadest substrate range of all characterized ACDs, reacting with acetyl-CoA, isobutyryl-CoA (preferred substrate) and phenylacetyl-CoA (Brasen et al., supra). The enzymes from A. fulgidus, H. marismortui and P. aerophilum have all been cloned, functionally expressed, and characterized in E. coli (Musfeldt et al., supra; Brasen et al., supra). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism AF1211 NP_070039.1 11498810 Archaeoglobus fulgidus DSM 4304 scs YP_135572.1 55377722 Haloarcula marismortui ATCC 43049 PAE3250 NP_560604.1 18313937 Pyrobaculum aerophilum str. IM2

Another candidate CoA synthetase is succinyl-CoA synthetase. The sucCD genes of E. coli form a succinyl-CoA synthetase complex which naturally catalyzes the formation of succinyl-CoA from succinate with the concaminant consumption of one ATP, a reaction which is reversible in vivo (Buck et al., Biochem. 24:6245-6252 (1985)). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism sucC NP_415256.1 16128703 Escherichia coli sucD AAC73823.1 1786949 Escherichia coli

Additional exemplary CoA-ligases include the rat dicarboxylate-CoA ligase for which the sequence is yet uncharacterized (Vamecq et al., Biochemical Journal 230:683-693 (1985)), either of the two characterized phenylacetate-CoA ligases from P. chrysogenum (Lamas-Maceiras et al., Biochem. J. 395:147-155 (2005); Wang et al., Biochem Biophy Res Commun 360(2):453-458 (2007)), the phenylacetate-CoA ligase from Pseudomonas putida (Martinez-Blanco et al., J. Biol. Chem. 265:7084-7090 (1990)), and the 6-carboxyhexanoate-CoA ligase from Bacilis subtilis (Boweret al., J. Bacteriol. 178(14):4122-4130 (1996)). Additional candidate enzymes are acetoacetyl-CoA synthetases from Mus musculus (Hasegawa et al., Biochim Biophys Acta 1779:414-419 (2008)) and Homo sapiens (Ohgami et al., Biochem Pharmacol 65:989-994 (2003)) which naturally catalyze the ATP-dependant conversion of acetoacetate into acetoacetvl-CoA. These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism phl CAJ15517.1 77019264 Penicillium chrysogenum phlB ABS19624.1 152002983 Penicillium chrysogenum paaF AAC24333.2 22711873 Pseudomonas putida bioW NP_390902.2 50812281 Bacillus subtilis AACS NP_084486.1 21313520 Mus musculus AACS NP_076417.2 31982927 Homo sapiens

Crotonyl-CoA transferase catalyzes the conversion of crotonyl-CoA to crotonate. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Many transferases have broad specificity and thus can utilize CoA acceptors as diverse as acetate, succinate, propionate, butyrate, 2-methylacetoacetate, 3-ketohexanoate, 3-ketopentanoate, valerate, crotonate, 3-mercaptopropionate, propionate, vinylacetate, butyrate, among others. For example, an enzyme from Roseburia sp. A2-183 was shown to have butyryl-CoA:acetate:CoA transferase and propionyl-CoA:acetate:CoA transferase activity (Charrier et al., Microbiology 152, 179-185 (2006)). Close homologs can be found in, for example, Roseburia intestinalis L1-82, Roseburia inulinivorans DSM 16841, Eubacterium rectale ATCC 33656. Another enzyme with propionyl-CoA transferase activity can be found in Clostridium propionicum (Selmer et al., Eur J Biochem 269, 372-380 (2002)). This enzyme can use acetate, (R)-lactate, (S)-lactate, acrylate, and butyrate as the CoA acceptor (Selmer et al., Eur J Biochem 269, 372-380 (2002); Schweiger and Buckel, FEBS Letters, 171(1) 79-84 (1984)). Close homologs can be found in, for example, Clostridium novyi NT, Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052, and Clostridium botulinum C str. Eklund. YgfH encodes a propionyl CoA: succinate CoA transferase in E. coli (Haller et al., Biochemistry, 39(16) 4622-4629). Close homologs can be found in, for example, Citrobacter youngae ATCC 29220, Salmonella enterica subsp. arizonae serovar, and Yersinia intermedia ATCC 29909. These proteins are identified below .

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism Ach1 AAX19660.1 60396828 Roseburia sp. A2-183 ROSINTL182_07121 ZP_04743841.2 257413684 Roseburia intestinalis L1-82 ROSEINA2194_03642 ZP_03755203.1 225377982 Roseburia inulinivorans DSM 16841 EUBREC_3075 YP_002938937.1 238925420 Eubacterium rectale ATCC 33656 pct CAB77207.1 7242549 Clostridium propionicum NT01CX_2372 YP_878445.1 118444712 Clostridium novyi NT Cbei_4543 YP_001311608.1 150019354 Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 CBC_A0889 ZP_02621218.1 168186583 Clostridium botulinum C str. Eklund ygfH NP_417395.1 16130821 Escherichia coli str. K-12 substr. MG1655 CIT292_04485 ZP_03838384.1 227334728 Citrobacter youngae ATCC 29220 SARI_04582 YP_001573497.1 161506385 Salmonella enterica subsp. arizonae serovar yinte0001_14430 ZP_04635364.1 238791727 Yersinia intermedia ATCC 29909

An additional candidate enzyme is the two-unit enzyme encoded by pcaI and pcaJ in Pseudomonas, which has been shown to have 3-oxoadipyl-CoA/succinate transferase activity (Kaschabek et al., supra). Similar enzymes based on homology exist in Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 (Kowalchuk et al., Gene 146:23-30 (1994)) and Streptomyces coelicolor. Additional exemplary succinyl-CoA:3:oxoacid-CoA transferases are present in Helicobacter pylori (Corthesy-Theulaz et al., J. Biol. Chem. 272:25659-25667 (1997)) and Bacillus subtilis (Stols et al., Protein. Expr. Purif. 53:396-403 (2007)). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism pcaI AAN69545.1 24985644 Pseudomonas putida pcaJ NP_746082.1 26990657 Pseudomonas putida pcaI YP_046368.1 50084858 Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 pcaJ AAC37147.1 141776 Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 pcaI NP_630776.1 21224997 Streptomyces coelicolor pcaJ NP_630775.1 21224996 Streptomyces coelicolor HPAG1_0676 YP_627417 108563101 Helicobacter pylori HPAG1_0677 YP_627418 108563102 Helicobacter pylori ScoA NP_391778 16080950 Bacillus subtilis ScoB NP_391777 16080949 Bacillus subtilis

A CoA transferase that can utilize acetate as the CoA acceptor is acetoacetyl-CoA transferase, encoded by the E. coli atoA (alpha subunit) and atoD (beta subunit) genes (Vanderwinkel et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res Commun. 33:902-908 (1968); Korolev et al., Acta Crystallogr. D Biol Crystallo. 58:2116-2121 (2002)). This enzyme has also been shown to transfer the CoA moiety to acetate from a variety of branched and linear acyl-CoA substrates, including isobutyrate (Matthies et al., Appl Environ Microbiol 58:1435-1439 (1992)), valerate (Vanderwinkel et al., supra) and butanoate (Vanderwinkel et al., supra). Similar enzymes exist in Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032 (Duncan et al., Appl Environ Microbiol 68:5186-5190 (2002)), Clostridium acetobutylicum (Cary et al., Appl Environ Microbiol 56:1576-1583 (1990)), and Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum (Kosaka et al., Biosci. Biotechnol Biochem. 71:58-68 (2007)). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism atoA P76459.1 2492994 Escherichia coli K12 atoD P76458.1 2492990 Escherichia coli K12 actA YP_226809.1 62391407 Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032 cg0592 YP_224801.1 62389399 Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032 ctfA NP_149326.1 15004866 Clostridium acetobutylicum ctfB NP_149327.1 15004867 Clostridium acetobutylicum ctfA AAP42564.1 31075384 Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum ctfB AAP42565.1 31075385 Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum

The above enzymes can also exhibit the desired activities on crotonyl-CoA. Additional exemplary transferase candidates are catalyzed by the gene products of cat1, cat2, and cat3 of Clostridium kluyveri which have been shown to exhibit succinyl-CoA, 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, and butyryl-CoA transferase activity, respectively (Seedorf et al., supra; Sohling et al., Eur. J Biochem. 212:121-127 (1993); Sohling et al., J Bacteriol. 178:871-880 (1996)). Similar CoA transferase activities are also present in Trichomonas vaginalis (van Grinsven et al., J. Biol. Chem. 283:1411-1418 (2008)) and Trypanosoma brucei (Riviere et al., J. Biol. Chem. 279:45337-45346 (2004)). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism cat1 P38946.1 729048 Clostridium kluyveri cat2 P38942.2 172046066 Clostridium kluyveri cat3 EDK35586.1 146349050 Clostridium kluyveri TVAG_395550 XP_001330176 123975034 Trichomonas vaginalis G3 Tb11.02.0290 XP_828352 71754875 Trypanosoma brucei

The glutaconate-CoA-transferase (EC 2.8.3.12) enzyme from anaerobic bacterium Acidaminococcus fermentans reacts with diacid glutaconyl-CoA and 3-butenoyl-CoA (Mack et al., FEBS Lett. 405:209-212 (1997)). The genes encoding this enzyme are gctA and gctB. This enzyme has reduced but detectable activity with other CoA derivatives including glutaryl-CoA, 2-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA, adipyl-CoA and acrylyl-CoA (Buckel et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 118:315-321 (1981)). The enzyme has been cloned and expressed in E. coli (Mack et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 226:41-51 (1994)). These proteins are identified below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism gctA CAA57199.1 559392 Acidaminococcus fermentans gctB CAA57200.1 559393 Acidaminococcus fermentans

Crotonate Reductase (FIG. 2, Step J)

Crotonate reductase enzymes are capable of catalyzing the conversion of crotonate to crotonaldehyde. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Carboxylic acid reductase catalyzes the magnesium, ATP and NADPH-dependent reduction of carboxylic acids to their corresponding aldehydes (Venkitasubramanian et al., J. Biol. Chem. 282:478-485 (2007)). This enzyme, encoded by car, was cloned and functionally expressed in E. coli (Venkitasubramanian et al., J. Biol. Chem. 282:478-485 (2007)). Expression of the npt gene product improved activity of the enzyme via post-transcriptional modification. The npt gene encodes a specific phosphopantetheine transferase (PPTase) that converts the inactive apo-enzyme to the active holo-enzyme. The natural substrate of this enzyme is vanillic acid, and the enzyme exhibits broad acceptance of aromatic and aliphatic substrates (Venkitasubramanian et al., in Biocatalysis in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industires, ed. R.N. Patel, Chapter 15, pp. 425-440, CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Fla. (2006)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism Car AAR91681.1 40796035 Nocardia iowensis (sp. NRRL 5646) Npt ABI83656.1 114848891 Nocardia iowensis (sp. NRRL 5646)

Additional car and npt genes can be identified based on sequence homology.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism fadD9 YP_978699.1 121638475 Mycobacterium bovis BCG BCG_2812c YP_978898.1 121638674 Mycobacterium bovis BCG nfa20150 YP_118225.1 54023983 Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 nfa40540 YP_120266.1 54026024 Nocardia farcinica IFM 10152 SGR_6790 YP_001828302.1 182440583 Streptomyces griseus subsp. griseus NBRC 13350 SGR_665 YP_001822177.1 182434458 Streptomyces griseus subsp. griseus NBRC 13350 MSMEG_2956 YP_887275.1 118473501 Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155 MSMEG_5739 YP_889972.1 118469671 Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155 MSMEG_2648 YP_886985.1 118471293 Mycobacterium smegmatis MC2 155 MAP1040c NP_959974.1 41407138 Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis K-10 MAP2899c NP_961833.1 41408997 Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis K-10 MMAR_2117 YP_001850422.1 183982131 Mycobacterium marinum M MMAR_2936 YP_001851230.1 183982939 Mycobacterium marinum M MMAR_1916 YP_001850220.1 183981929 Mycobacterium marinum M TpauDRAFT_33060 ZP_04027864.1 227980601 Tsukamurella paurometabola DSM 20162 TpauDRAFT_20920 ZP_04026660.1 227979396 Tsukamurella paurometabola DSM 20162 CPCC7001_1320 ZP_05045132.1 254431429 Cyanobium PCC7001 DDBDRAFT_0187729 XP_636931.1 66806417 Dictyostelium discoideum AX4

An additional enzyme candidate found in Streptomyces griseus is encoded by the griC and griD genes. This enzyme is believed to convert 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzoic acid to 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde as deletion of either griC or griD led to accumulation of extracellular 3-acetylamino-4-hydroxybenzoic acid, a shunt product of 3-amino-4-hydroxybenzoic acid metabolism (Suzuki, et al., J. Antibiot. 60(6):380-387 (2007)). Co-expression of griC and griD with SGR_665, an enzyme similar in sequence to the Nocardia iowensis npt, can be beneficial.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism griC YP_001825755.1 182438036 Streptomyces griseus subsp. griseus NBRC 13350 Grid YP_001825756.1 182438037 Streptomyces griseus subsp. griseus NBRC 13350

An enzyme with similar characteristics, alpha-aminoadipate reductase (AAR, EC 1.2.1.31), participates in lysine biosynthesis pathways in some fungal species. This enzyme naturally reduces alpha-aminoadipate to alpha-aminoadipate semialdehyde. The carboxyl group is first activated through the ATP-dependent formation of an adenylate that is then reduced by NAD(P)H to yield the aldehyde and AMP. Like CAR, this enzyme utilizes magnesium and requires activation by a PPTase. Enzyme candidates for AAR and its corresponding PPTase are found in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Morris et al., Gene 98:141-145 (1991)), Candida albicans (Guo et al., Mol. Genet. Genomics 269:271-279 (2003)), and Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Ford et al., Curr. Genet. 28:131-137 (1995)). The AAR from S. pombe exhibited significant activity when expressed in E. coli (Guo et al., Yeast 21:1279-1288 (2004)). The AAR from Penicillium chrysogenum accepts S-carboxymethyl-L-cysteine as an alternate substrate, but did not react with adipate, L-glutamate or diaminopimelate (Hijarrubia et al., J. Biol. Chem. 278:8250-8256 (2003)). The gene encoding the P. chrysogenum PPTase has not been identified to date.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism LYS2 AAA34747.1 171867 Saccharomyces cerevisiae LYS5 P50113.1 1708896 Saccharomyces cerevisiae LYS2 AAC02241.1 2853226 Candida albicans LYS5 AAO26020.1 28136195 Candida albicans Lys1p P40976.3 13124791 Schizosaccharomyces pombe Lys7p Q10474.1 1723561 Schizosaccharomyces pombe Lys2 CAA74300.1 3282044 Penicillium chrysogenum

Crotonyl-CoA Reductase (Alcohol Forming) (FIG. 2, Step K)

Crotonaldehyde reductase (alcohol forming) enzymes catalyze the 2 reduction steps required to form crotyl alcohol from crotonyl-CoA. Exemplary 2-step oxidoreductases that convert an acyl-CoA to an alcohol are provided below. Such enzymes can naturally convert crotonyl-CoA to crotyl alcohol or can be engineered to do so. These enzymes include those that transform substrates such as acetyl-CoA to ethanol (e.g., adhE from E. coli (Kessler et al., FEBS. Lett. 281:59-63 (1991))) and butyryl-CoA to butanol (e.g. adhE2 from C. acetobutylicum (Fontaine et al., J. Bacteriol. 184:821-830 (2002))). The adhE2 enzyme from C. acetobutylicum was specifically shown in ref (Burk et al., supra, (2008)) to produce BDO from 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA. In addition to reducing acetyl-CoA to ethanol, the enzyme encoded by adhE in Leuconostoc mesenteroides has been shown to oxide the branched chain compound isobutyraldehyde to isobutyryl-CoA (Kazahaya et al., J. Gen. Appl. Microbiol. 18:43-55 (1972); Koo et al., Biotechnol. Lett. 27:505-510 (2005)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism adhE NP_415757.1 16129202 Escherichia coli adhE2 AAK09379.1 12958626 Clostridium acetobutylicum adhE AAV66076.1 55818563 Leuconostoc mesenteroides

Another exemplary enzyme can convert malonyl-CoA to 3-HP. An NADPH-dependent enzyme with this activity has characterized in Chloroflexus aurantiacus where it participates in the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle (Hugler et al., supra, (2002); Strauss et al., 215:633-643 (1993)). This enzyme, with a mass of 300 kDa, is highly substrate-specific and shows little sequence similarity to other known oxidoreductases (Hugler et al., supra, (2002)). No enzymes in other organisms have been shown to catalyze this specific reaction; however there is bioinformatic evidence that other organisms can have similar pathways (Klatt et al., Environ Microbiol. 9:2067-2078 (2007)). Enzyme candidates in other organisms including Roseiflexus castenholzii, Erythrobacter sp. NAP1 and marine gamma proteobacterium HTCC2080 can be inferred by sequence similarity.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism mcr AAS20429.1 42561982 Chloroflexus aurantiacus Rcas_2929 YP_001433009.1 156742880 Roseiflexus castenholzii NAP1_02720 ZP_01039179.1 85708113 Erythrobacter sp. NAP1 MGP2080_00535 ZP_01626393.1 119504313 marine gamma proteobacterium HTCC2080

Glutaconyl-CoA Decarboxylase (FIG. 2, Step L)

Glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase enzymes, characterized in glutamate-fermenting anaerobic bacteria, are sodium-ion translocating decarboxylases that utilize biotin as a cofactor and are composed of four subunits (alpha, beta, gamma, and delta) (Boiangiu et al., J Mol. Microbiol Biotechnol 10:105-119 (2005); Buckel, Biochim Biophys Acta. 1505:15-27 (2001)). Such enzymes have been characterized in Fusobacterium nucleatum (Beatrix et al., Arch Microbiol. 154:362-369 (1990)) and Acidaminococcus fermentans (Braune et al., Mol. Microbiol 31:473-487 (1999)). Analogs to the F. nucleatum glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase alpha, beta and delta subunits are found in S. aciditrophicus. A gene annotated as an enoyl-CoA dehydrogenase, syn_00480, another GCD, is located in a predicted operon between a biotin-carboxyl carrier (syn 00479) and a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase alpha subunit (syn_00481). The protein sequences for exemplary gene products can be found using the following GenBank accession numbers shown below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism gcdA CAA49210 49182 Acidaminococcus fermentans gcdC AAC69172 3777506 Acidaminococcus fermentans gcdD AAC69171 3777505 Acidaminococcus fermentans gcdB AAC69173 3777507 Acidaminococcus fermentans FN0200 AAL94406 19713641 Fusobacterium nucleatum FN0201 AAL94407 19713642 Fusobacterium nucleatum FN0204 AAL94410 19713645 Fusobacterium nucleatum syn_00479 YP_462066 85859864 Syntrophus aciditrophicus syn_00481 YP_462068 85859866 Syntrophus aciditrophicus syn_01431 YP_460282 85858080 Syntrophus aciditrophicus syn_00480 ABC77899 85722956 Syntrophus aciditrophicus

Glutaryl-CoA Dehydrogenase (FIG. 2 Step M)

Glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase (GCD, EC 1.3.99.7 and EC 4.1.1.70) is a bifunctional enzyme that catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA (FIG. 3, step 3). Bifunctional GCD enzymes are homotetramers that utilize electron transfer flavoprotein as an electron acceptor (Hartel et al., Arch Microbiol. 159:174-181 (1993)). Such enzymes were first characterized in cell extracts of Pseudomonas strains KB740 and K172 during growth on aromatic compounds (Hartel et al., supra, (1993)), but the associated genes in these organisms is unknown. Genes encoding glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase (gcdH) and its cognate transcriptional regulator (gcdR) were identified in Azoarcus sp. CIB (Blazquez et al., Environ Microbiol. 10:474-482 (2008)). An Azoarcus strain deficient in gcdH activity was used to identify the a heterologous gene gcdH from Pseudomonas putida (Blazquez et al., supra, (2008)). The cognate transcriptional regulator in Pseudomonas putida has not been identified but the locus PP_0157 has a high sequence homology (>69% identity) to the Azoarcus enzyme. Additional GCD enzymes are found in Pseudomonas fluorescens and Paracoccus denitrificans (Husain et al., J Bacteriol. 163:709-715 (1985)). The human GCD has been extensively studied, overexpressed in E. coli (Dwyer et al., Biochemistry 39:11488-11499 (2000)), crystallized, and the catalytic mechanism involving a conserved glutamate residue in the active site has been described (Fu et al., Biochemistry 43:9674-9684 (2004)). A GCD in Syntrophus aciditrophicus operates in the CO₂-assimilating direction during growth on crotonate (Mouttaki et al., Appl Environ Microbiol. 73:930-938 (2007))). Two GCD genes in S. aciditrophicus were identified by protein sequence homology to the Azoarcus GcdH: syn 00480 (31%) and syn_01146 (31%). No significant homology was found to the Azoarcus GcdR regulatory protein. The protein sequences for exemplary gene products can be found using the following GenBank accession numbers shown below.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism gcdH ABM69268.1 123187384 Azoarcus sp. CIB gcdR ABM69269.1 123187385 Azoarcus sp. CIB gcdH AAN65791.1 24981507 Pseudomonas putida KT2440 PP_0157 AAN65790.1 24981506 Pseudomonas putida (gcdR) KT2440 gcdH YP_257269.1 70733629 Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5 gcvA YP_257268.1 70733628 Pseudomonas fluorescens (gcdR) Pf-5 gcd YP_918172.1 119387117 Paracoccus denitrificans gcdR YP_918173.1 119387118 Paracoccus denitrificans gcd AAH02579.1 12803505 Homo sapiens syn_00480 ABC77899 85722956 Syntrophus aciditrophicus syn_01146 ABC76260 85721317 Syntrophus aciditrophicus

3-Aminobutyryl-CoA Deaminase (FIG. 2, Step N)

3-aminobutyryl-CoA is an intermediate in lysine fermentation. it also can be formed from acetoacetyl-CoA via a transaminase or an aminating dehydrogenase. 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase (or 3-aminobutyryl-CoA ammonia lyase) catalyzes the deamination of 3-aminobutyryl-CoA to form crotonyl-CoA. This reversible enzyme is present in Fusobacterium nucleatum, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis, and several other organisms and is co-localized with several genes involved in lysine fermentation (Kreimeyer et al., J Biol Chem, 2007, 282(10) 7191-7197).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism kal NP_602669.1 19705174 Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. nucleatum ATCC 25586 kal NP_905282.1 34540803 Porphyromonas gingivalis W83 kal NP_622376.1 20807205 Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis MB4

4-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA Dehydratase (FIG. 2, Step O)

Several enzymes naturally catalyze the dehydration of 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonoyl-CoA. This transformation is required for 4-aminobutyrate fermentation by Clostridium aminobutyricum (Scherf et al., Eur. J Biochem. 215:421-429 (1993)) and succinate-ethanol fermentation by Clostridium kluyveri (Scherf et al., Arch. Microbiol 161:239-245 (1994)). The transformation is also a key step in Archaea, for example, Metallosphaera sedula, as part of the 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate autotrophic carbon dioxide assimilation pathway (Berg et al., supra, (2007)). The reversibility of 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase is well-documented (Muh et al., Biochemistry. 35:11710-11718 (1996); Friedrich et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 47:3254-3257 (2008); Muh et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 248:380-384 (1997)) and the equilibrium constant has been reported to be about 4 on the side of crotonoyl-CoA (Scherf and Buckel, supra, (1993)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism AbfD CAB60035 70910046 Clostridium aminobutyricum AbfD YP_001396399 153955634 Clostridium kluyveri Msed_1321 YP_001191403 146304087 Metallosphaera sedula Msed_1220 YP_001191305 146303989 Metallosphaera sedula

Crotyl Alcohol Diphosphokinase (FIG. 2, Step P)

Crotyl alcohol diphosphokinase enzymes catalyze the transfer of a diphosphate group to the hydroxyl group of crotyl alcohol. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Kinases that catalyze transfer of a diphosphate group are members of the EC 2.7.6 enzyme class. The table below lists several useful kinase enzymes in the EC 2.7.6 enzyme class.

Enzyme Commission Number Enzyme Name 2.7.6.1 ribose-phosphate diphosphokinase 2.7.6.2 thiamine diphosphokinase 2.7.6.3 2-amino-4-hydroxy-6-hydroxymethyldihydropteridine diphosphokinase 2.7.6.4 nucleotide diphosphokinase 2.7.6.5 GTP diphosphokinase

Of particular interest are ribose-phosphate diphosphokinase enzymes which have been identified in Escherichia coli (Hove-Jenson et al., J Biol Chem, 1986, 261(15);6765-71) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae M129 (McElwain et al, International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology, 1988, 38:417-423) as well as thiamine diphosphokinase enzymes. Exemplary thiamine diphosphokinase enzymes are found in Arabidopsis thaliana (Ajjawi, Plant Mol Biol, 2007, 65(1-2);151-62).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism prs NP_415725.1 16129170 Escherichia coli prsA NP_109761.1 13507812 Mycoplasma pneumoniae M129 TPK1 BAH19964.1 222424006 Arabidopsis thaliana col TPK2 BAH57065.1 227204427 Arabidopsis thaliana col

Erythrose-4-Phosphate Reductase (FIG. 3, Step A)

In Step A of the pathway, erythrose-4-phosphate is converted to erythritol-4-phosphate by the erythrose-4-phosphate reductase or erythritol-4-phosphate dehydrogenase. The reduction of erythrose-4-phosphate was observed in Leuconostoc oenos during the production of erythritol (Veiga-da-Cunha et al., J Bacteriol. 175:3941-3948 (1993)). NADPH was identified as the cofactor (Veiga-da-Cunha et al., supra, (1993)). However, gene for erythrose-4-phosphate was not identified. Thus, it is possible to identify the erythrose-4-phosphate reductase gene from Leuconostoc oenos and apply to this step. Additionally, enzymes catalyzing similar reactions can be utilized for this step. An example of these enzymes is 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase (EC 1.1.1.267) catalyzing the conversion of 1-deoxy-D-xylylose 5-phosphate to 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate, which has one additional methyl group comparing to Step A. The dxr or ispC genes encode the 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase have been well studied: the Dxr proteins from Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis were purified and their crystal structures were determined (Yajima et al., Acta Crystallogr. Sect. F. Struct. Biol. Cryst. Commun. 63:466-470 (2007); Mac et al., J Mol. Biol. 345:115-127 (2005); Henriksson et al., Acta Crystallogr. D. Biol. Crystallogr. 62:807-813 (2006); Henriksson et al., J Biol Chem. 282:19905-19916 (2007)); the Dxr protein from Synechocystis sp was studied by site-directed mutagenesis with modified activity and altered kinetics (Fernandes et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1764:223-229 (2006); Fernandes et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 444:159-164 (2005)). Furthermore, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate reductase YghZ from Escherichia coli catalyzes the conversion between glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and glycerol-3-phosphate (Desai et al., Biochemistry 47:7983-7985 (2008)) can also be applied to this step. The following genes can be used for Step A conversion:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism dxr P45568.2 2506592 Escherichia coli strain K12 dxr A5U6M4.1 166218269 Mycobacterium tuberculosis dxr Q55663.1 2496789 Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803 yghZ NP_417474.1 16130899 Escherichia coli strain K12

Erythritol-4-Phospate Cytidylyltransferase (FIG. 3, Step B)

In Step B of the pathway, erythritol-4-phosphate is converted to 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol by the erythritol-4-phospate cytidylyltransferase or 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol synthase. The exact enzyme for this step has not been identified. However, enzymes catalyzing similar reactions can be applied to this step. An example is the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate cytidylyltransferase or 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol synthase (EC 2.7.7.60). The 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phospate cytidylyltransferase is in the methylerythritol phosphate pathway for the isoprenoid biosynthesis and catalyzes the conversion between 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phospate and 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol, with an extra methyl group comparing to Step B conversion. The 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate cytidylyltransferase is encoded by ispD gene and the crystal structure of Escherichia coli IspD was determined (Kemp et al., Acta Crystallogr. D. Biol. Crystallogr. 57:1189-1191 (2001); Kemp et al., Acta Crystallogr. D. Biol. Crystallogr. 59:607-610 (2003); Richard et al., Nat. Struct. Biol. 8:641-648 (2001)). The ispD gene from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and the recombinant proteins were purified with N-terminal His-tag (Shi et al., J Biochem. Mol. Biol. 40:911-920 (2007)). Additionally, the Streptomyces coelicolor ispD gene was cloned and expressed in E. coli, and the recombinant proteins were characterized physically and kinetically (Cane et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. 9:1467-1477 (2001)). The following genes can be used for Step B conversion:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispD Q46893.3 2833415 Escherichia coli strain K12 ispD A5U8Q7.1 166215456 Mycobacterium tuberculosis ispD Q9L0Q8.1 12230289 Streptomyces coelicolor 4-(Cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol Kinase (FIG. 3, Step C)

In Step C of the pathway, 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol is converted to 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol by the 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol kinase. The exact enzyme for this step has not been identified. However, enzymes catalyzing similar reactions can be applied to this step. An example is the 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methylerythritol kinase (EC 2.7.1.148). The 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methylerythritol kinase is also in the methylerythritol phosphate pathway for the isoprenoid biosynthesis and catalyzes the conversion between 4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol and 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol, with an extra methyl group comparing to Step C conversion. The 4-diphosphocytidyl-2-C-methylerythritol kinase is encoded by ispE gene and the crystal structures of Escherichia coli, Thermus thermophilus HB8, and Aquifex aeolicus IspE were determined (Sgraj a et al., FEBS J275:2779-2794 (2008); Miallau et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 100:9173-9178 (2003); Wada et al., J Biol. Chem. 278:30022-30027 (2003)). The ispE genes from above organism were cloned and expressed, and the recombinant proteins were purified for crystallization. The following genes can be used for Step C conversion:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispE P62615.1 50402174 Escherichia coli strain K12 ispE P83700.1 51316201 Thermus thermophilus HB8 ispE O67060.1 6919911 Aquifex aeolicus Erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate Synthase (FIG. 3, Step D)

In Step D of the pathway, 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′-diphospho)-erythritol is converted to erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate by the Erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase. The exact enzyme for this step has not been identified. However, enzymes catalyzing similar reactions can be applied to this step. An example is the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase (EC 4.6.1.12). The 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase is also in the methylerythritol phosphate pathway for the isoprenoid biosynthesis and catalyzes the conversion between 2-phospho-4-(cytidine 5′diphospho)-2-C-methyl-D-erythritol and 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate, with an extra methyl group comparing to step D conversion. The 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase is encoded by ispF gene and the crystal structures of Escherichia coli, Thermus thermophilus, Haemophilus influenzae, and Campylobacter jejuni IspF were determined (Richard et al., J Biol. Chem. 277:8667-8672 (2002); Steinbacher et al., J Mol. Biol. 316:79-88 (2002); Lehmann et al., Proteins 49:135-138 (2002); Kishida et al., Acta Crystallogr. D. Biol. Crystallogr. 59:23-31 (2003); Gabrielsen et al., J Biol. Chem. 279:52753-52761 (2004)). The ispF genes from above organism were cloned and expressed, and the recombinant proteins were purified for crystallization. The following genes can be used for Step D conversion:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispF P62617.1 51317402 Escherichia coli strain K12 ispF Q8RQP5.1 51701599 Thermus thermophilus HB8 ispF P44815.1 1176081 Haemophilus influenzae ispF Q9PM68.1 12230305 Campylobacter jejuni 1-Hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate Synthase (FIG. 3, Step E)

Step E of FIG. 3 entails conversion of erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate to 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate by 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate synthase. An enzyme with this activity has not been characterized to date. This transformation is analogous to the reduction of 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate to 1-hydroxy-2-methyl-2-(E)-butenyl 4-diphosphate by (E)-4-hydroxy-3-methylbut-2-enyl-diphosphate synthase (EC 1.17.7.1). This enzyme is an iron-sulfur protein that participates in the non-mevalonate pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis found in bacteria and plants. Most bacterial enzymes including the E. coli enzyme, encoded by ispG, utilize reduced ferredoxin or flavodoxin as an electron donor (Zepeck et al., J Org. Chem. 70:9168-9174 (2005)). An analogous enzyme from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-1, encoded by gcpE, was heterologously expressed and characterized in E. coli (Okada et al., J Biol. Chem. 280:20672-20679 (2005)). Additional enzyme candidates from Thermus thermophilus and Arabidopsis thaliana have been characterized and expressed in E. coli (Seemann et al., J Biol. Inorg. Chem. 10:131-137 (2005); Kollas et al., FEBS Lett. 532:432-436 (2002)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispG NP_417010.1 16130440 Escherichia coli gcpE NP_681786.1 22298539 Thermosynechococcus elongatus gcpE AAO21364.1 27802077 Thermus thermophilus gcpE AAO15446.1 27462472 Arabidopsis thaliana 1-Hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate Reductase (FIG. 3, Step F)

The concurrent dehydration and reduction of 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate is catalyzed by an enzyme with 1-hydroxy-2-butenyl 4-diphosphate reductase activity (FIG. 3, Step F). Such an enzyme will form a mixture of products, butenyl 4-diphosphate or 2-butenyl 4-diphosphate. An analogous reaction is catalyzed by 4-hydroxy-3-methylbut-2-enyl diphosphate reductase (EC 1.17.1.2) in the non-mevalonate pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis. This enzyme is an iron-sulfur protein that utilizes reduced ferredoxin or flavodoxin as an electron donor. Maximal activity of 4-hydroxy-3-methylbut-2-enyl diphosphate reductase E. coli, encoded by ispH, requires both flavodoxin and flavodoxin reductase (Wolff et al., FEBS Lett. 541:115-120 (2003); Grawert et al., J Am. Chem. Soc. 126:12847-12855 (2004)). In the characterized catalytic system, reduced flavodoxin is regenerated by the NAD(P)+-dependent flavodoxin reductase. The enzyme from Aquifex aeolicus, encoded by lytB, was expressed as a His-tagged enzyme in E. coli and characterized (Altincicek et al., FEBS Lett. 532:437-440 (2002)). An analogous enzyme in plants is encoded by hdr of Arabidopsis thaliana (Botella-Pavia et al., Plant J40:188-199 (2004)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispH AAL38655.1 18652795 Escherichia coli lytB O67625.1 8928180 Aquifex aeolicus hdr NP_567965.1 18418433 Arabidopsis thaliana

Altering the expression level of genes involved in iron-sulfur cluster formation can have an advantageous effect on the activities of iron-sulfur proteins in the proposed pathways (for example, enzymes required in Steps E and F of FIG. 3). In E. coli, it was demonstrated that overexpression of the iron-sulfur containing protein IspH (analogous to Step F of FIG. 3) is enhanced by coexpression of genes from the isc region involved in assembly of iron-sulfur clusters (Grawert et al., J Am. Chem. Soc. 126:12847-12855 (2004)). The gene cluster is composed of the genes icsS, icsU, icsA, hscB, hscA and fdx. Overexpression of these genes was shown to improve the synthetic capability of the iron-sulfur assembly pipeline, required for functional expression of iron-sulfur proteins. A similar approach can be applicable in the current application.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism iscS AAT48142.1 48994898 Escherichia coli iscU AAC75582.1 1788878 Escherichia coli iscA AAC75581.1 1788877 Escherichia coli hscB AAC75580.1 1788876 Escherichia coli hscA AAC75579.1 1788875 Escherichia coli fdx AAC75578.1 1788874 Escherichia coli Butenyl 4-diphosphate Isomerase (FIG. 3, Step G)

Butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase catalyzes the reversible interconversion of 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate and butenyl-4-diphosphate. The following enzymes can naturally possess this activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Useful genes include those that encode enzymes that interconvert isopenenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. These include isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase enzymes from Escherichia coli (Rodriguez-Concepción et al., FEBS Lett, 473(3):328-332), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Anderson et al., J Biol Chem, 1989, 264(32);19169-75), and Sulfolobus shibatae (Yamashita et al, Eur J Biochem, 2004, 271(6);1087-93). The reaction mechanism of isomerization, catalyzed by the Idi protein of E. coli, has been characterized in mechanistic detail (de Ruyck et al., J Biol. Chem. 281:17864-17869 (2006)). Isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase enzymes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Bacillus subtilis and Haematococcus pluvialis have been heterologously expressed in E. coli (Laupitz et al., Eur. J Biochem. 271:2658-2669 (2004); Kajiwara et al., Biochem. J 324 (Pt 2):421-426 (1997)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism Idi NP_417365.1 16130791 Escherichia coli IDI1 NP_015208.1 6325140 Saccharomyces cerevisiae Idi BAC82424.1 34327946 Sulfolobus shibatae Idi AAC32209.1 3421423 Haematococcus pluvialis Idi BAB32625.1 12862826 Bacillus subtilis

Butadiene Synthase (FIG. 3, Step H)

Butadiene synthase catalyzes the conversion of 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate to 1,3-butadiene. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Isoprene synthase naturally catalyzes the conversion of dimethylallyl diphosphate to isoprene, but can also catalyze the synthesis of 1,3-butadiene from 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate. Isoprene synthases can be found in several organisms including Populus alba (Sasaki et al., FEBS Letters, 579 (11), 2514-2518 (2005)), Pueraria montana (Lindberg et al., Metabolic Eng, 12(1):70-79 (2010); Sharkey et al., Plant Physiol., 137(2):700-712 (2005)), and Populus tremula x Populus alba (Miller et al., Planta, 213(3):483-487 (2001)). Additional isoprene synthase enzymes are described in (Chotani et al., WO/2010/031079, Systems Using Cell Culture for Production of Isoprene; Cervin et al., US Patent Application 20100003716, Isoprene Synthase Variants for Improved Microbial Production of Isoprene).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispS BAD98243.1 63108310 Populus alba ispS AAQ84170.1 35187004 Pueraria montana ispS CAC35696.1 13539551 Populus tremula × Populus alba Erythrose-4-phosphate Kinase (FIG. 3, Step I)

In Step I of the pathway, erythrose-4-phosphate is converted to erythrose by the erythrose-4-phosphate kinase. In industrial fermentative production of erythritol by yeasts, glucose was converted to erythrose-4-phosphate through the pentose phosphate pathway and erythrose-4-phosphate was dephosphorylated and reduced to produce erythritol (Moon et al., Appl. Microbiol Biotechnol. 86:1017-1025 (2010)). Thus, erythrose-4-phosphate kinase is present in many of these erythritol-producing yeasts, including Trichasporonoides megachiliensis SN-G42(Sawada et al., J Biosci. Bioeng. 108:385-390 (2009)), Candida magnolia (Kohl et al., Biotechnol. Lett. 25:2103-2105 (2003)), and Torula sp. (HAJNY et al., Appl. Microbial 12:240-246 (1964); Oh et al., J Ind. Microbiol Biotechnol. 26:248-252 (2001)). However, the erythrose-4-phosphate kinase genes were not identified yet. There are many polyol phosphotransferases with wide substrate range that can be applied to this step. An example is the triose kinase (EC 2.7.1.28) catalyzing the reversible conversion between glyceraldehydes and glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate, which are one carbon shorter comparing to Step I. Other examples include the xylulokinase (EC 2.7.1.17) or arabinokinase (EC 2.7.1.54) that catalyzes phosphorylation of 5C polyol aldehyde. The following genes can be used for Step I conversion:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism xylB P09099.1 139849 Escherichia coli strain K12 xks1 P42826.2 1723736 Saccharomyces cerevisiae xylB P29444.1 267426 Klebsiella pneumoniae dak1 Q9HFC5 74624685 Zygosaccharomyces rouxii

Erythrose Reductase (FIG. 3, Step J)

In Step J of the pathway, erythrose is converted to erythritol by the erythrose reductase. In industrial fermentative production of erythritol by yeasts, glucose was converted to erythrose-4-phosphate through the pentose phosphate pathway and erythrose-4-phosphate was dephosphorylated and reduced to produce erythritol (Moon et al., supra, (2010)). Thus, erythrose reductase is present in many of these erythritol-producing yeasts, including Trichosporonoides inegachiliensis SN-G42 (Sawada et al., supra, (2009)), Candida magnolia (Kohl et al., supra, (2003)), and Torula sp. (HAJNY et al., supra, (1964); Oh et al., supra, (2001)). Erythrose reductase was characterized and purified from Torula corallina (Lee et al., Biotechnol. Prog. 19:495-500 (2003); Lee et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol 68:4534-4538 (2002)), Candida magnolia (Lee et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol 69:3710-3718 (2003)) and Trichosporonoides megachiliensis SN-G42 (Sawada et al., supra, (2009)). Sevreal erythrose reductase genes were cloned and can be applied to Step J. The following genes can be used for Step J conversion:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism alr ACT78580.1 254679867 Candida magnoliae er1 BAD90687.1 60458781 Trichosporonoides megachiliensis er2 BAD90688.1 60458783 Trichosporonoides megachiliensis er3 BAD90689.1 60458785 Trichosporonoides megachiliensis

Erythritol Kinase (FIG. 3, Step K)

In Step K of the pathway, erythritol is converted to erythritol-4-phosphate by the erythritol kinase. Erythritol kinase (EC 2.7.1.27) catalyzes the phosphorylation of erythritol. Erythritol kinase was characterized in erythritol utilizing bacteria such as Brucella abortus (Sperry et al., J Bacteriol. 121:619-630 (1975)). The eryA gene of Brucella abortus has been functionally expressed in Escherichia coli and the resultant EryA was shown to catalyze the ATP-dependent conversion of erythritol to erythritol-4-phosphate (Lillo et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 13:737-739 (2003)). The following genes can be used for Step K conversion:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism eryA Q8YCU8 81850596 Brucella melitensis eriA Q92NH0 81774560 Sinorhizobium meliloti eryA YP_001108625.1 134102964 Saccharopolyspora erythraea NRRL 2338 Malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA Acyltransferase (FIG. 4, Step A)

In Step A of the pathway described in FIG. 4, malonyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA are condensed to form 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA by malonyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyl transferase, a beta-keothiolase. Although no enzyme with activity on malonyl-CoA has been reported to date, a good candidate for this transformation is beta-ketoadipyl-CoA thiolase (EC 2.3.1.174), also called 3-oxoadipyl-CoA thiolase that converts beta-ketoadipyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA, and is a key enzyme of the beta-ketoadipate pathway for aromatic compound degradation. The enzyme is widespread in soil bacteria and fungi including Pseudomonas putida (Harwood et al., J Bacteriol. 176:6479-6488 (1994)) and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus (Doten et al., J Bacteriol. 169:3168-3174 (1987)). The gene products encoded by pcaF in Pseudomonas strain B13 (Kaschabek et al., J Bacteriol. 184:207-215 (2002)), phaD in Pseudomonas putida U (Olivera et al., supra, (1998)), paaE in Pseudomonas fluorescens ST (Di Gennaro et al., Arch Microbiol. 88:117-125 (2007)), and paaJ from E. coli (Nogales et al., Microbiology, 153:357-365 (2007)) also catalyze this transformation. Several beta-ketothiolases exhibit significant and selective activities in the oxoadipyl-CoA forming direction including bkt from Pseudomonas putida, pcaF and bkt from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, bkt from Burkholderia ambifaria AMMD, paaJ from E. coli, and phaD from P. putida. These enzymes can also be employed for the synthesis of 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA, a compound structurally similar to 3-oxoadipyl-CoA.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism paaJ NP_415915.1 16129358 Escherichia coli pcaF AAL02407 17736947 Pseudomonas knackmussii (B13) phaD AAC24332.1 3253200 Pseudomonas putida pcaF AAA85138.1 506695 Pseudomonas putida pcaF AAC37148.1 141777 Acinetobacter calcoaceticus paaE ABF82237.1 106636097 Pseudomonas fluorescens bkt YP_777652.1 115360515 Burkholderia ambifaria AMMD bkt AAG06977.1 9949744 Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 pcaF AAG03617.1 9946065 Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1

Another relevant beta-ketothiolase is oxopimeloyl-CoA:glutaryl-CoA acyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.16) that combines glutaryl-CoA and acetyl-CoA to form 3-oxopimeloyl-CoA. An enzyme catalyzing this transformation is found in Ralstonia eutropha (formerly known as Alcaligenes eutrophus), encoded by genes bktB and bktC (Slater et al., J. Bacteriol. 180:1979-1987 (1998); Haywood et al., FEMS Microbiology Letters 52:91-96 (1988)). The sequence of the BktB protein is known; however, the sequence of the BktC protein has not been reported. The pim operon of Rhodopseudomonas palustris also encodes a beta-ketothiolase, encoded by pimB, predicted to catalyze this transformation in the degradative direction during benzoyl-CoA degradation (Harrison et al., Microbiology 151:727-736 (2005)). A beta-ketothiolase enzyme candidate in S. aciditrophicus was identified by sequence homology to bktB (43% identity, evalue=1e-93).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism bktB YP_725948 11386745 Ralstonia eutropha pimB CAE29156 39650633 Rhodopseudomonas palustris syn_02642 YP_462685.1 85860483 Syntrophus aciditrophicus

Beta-ketothiolase enzymes catalyzing the formation of beta-ketovaleryl-CoA from acetyl-CoA and propionyl-CoA can also be able to catalyze the formation of 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA. Zoogloea ramigera possesses two ketothiolases that can form β-ketovaleryl-CoA from propionyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA and R. eutropha has a β-oxidation ketothiolase that is also capable of catalyzing this transformation (Slater et al., J. Bacteriol, 180:1979-1987 (1998)). The sequences of these genes or their translated proteins have not been reported, but several candidates in R. eutropha, Z. ramigera, or other organisms can be identified based on sequence homology to bktB from R. eutropha. These include:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism phaA YP_725941.1 113867452 Ralstonia eutropha h16_A1713 YP_726205.1 113867716 Ralstonia eutropha pcaF YP_728366.1 116694155 Ralstonia eutropha h16_B1369 YP_840888.1 116695312 Ralstonia eutropha h16_A0170 YP_724690.1 113866201 Ralstonia eutropha h16_A0462 YP_724980.1 113866491 Ralstonia eutropha h16_A1528 YP_726028.1 113867539 Ralstonia eutropha h16_B0381 YP_728545.1 116694334 Ralstonia eutropha h16_B0662 YP_728824.1 116694613 Ralstonia eutropha h16_B0759 YP_728921.1 116694710 Ralstonia eutropha h16_B0668 YP_728830.1 116694619 Ralstonia eutropha h16_A1720 YP_726212.1 113867723 Ralstonia eutropha h16_A1887 YP_726356.1 113867867 Ralstonia eutropha phbA P07097.4 135759 Zoogloea ramigera bktB YP_002005382.1 194289475 Cupriavidus taiwanensis Rmet_1362 YP_583514.1 94310304 Ralstonia metallidurans Bphy_0975 YP_001857210.1 186475740 Burkholderia phymatum

Additional candidates include beta-ketothiolases that are known to convert two molecules of acetyl-CoA into acetoacetyl-CoA (EC 2.1.3.9). Exemplary acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase enzymes include the gene products of atoB from E. coli (Martin et al., supra, (2003)), thlA and thlB from C. acetobutylicum (Hanai et al., supra, (2007); Winzer et al., supra, (2000)), and ERG10 from S. cerevisiae (Hiser et al., supra, (1994)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism toB NP_416728 16130161 Escherichia coli thlA NP_349476.1 15896127 Clostridium acetobutylicum thlB NP_149242.1 15004782 Clostridium acetobutylicum ERG10 NP_015297 6325229 Saccharomyces cerevisiae

3-oxoglutaryl-CoA Reductase (Ketone-Reducing) (FIG. 4, Step B)

This enzyme catalyzes the reduction of the 3-oxo group in 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA to the 3-hydroxy group in Step B of the pathway shown in FIG. 4.

3-Oxoacyl-CoA dehydrogenase enzymes convert 3-oxoacyl-CoA molecules into 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA molecules and are often involved in fatty acid beta-oxidation or phenylacetate catabolism. For example, subunits of two fatty acid oxidation complexes in E. coli, encoded by fadB and fadJ, function as 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenases (Binstock et al., Methods Enzymol. 71 Pt C:403-411 (1981)). Furthermore, the gene products encoded by phaC in Pseudomonas putida U (Olivera et al., supra, (1998)) and paaC in Pseudomonas fluorescens ST (Di et al., supra, (2007)) catalyze the reversible oxidation of 3-hydroxyadipyl-CoA to form 3-oxoadipyl-CoA, during the catabolism of phenylacetate or styrene. In addition, given the proximity in E. coli of paaH to other genes in the phenylacetate degradation operon (Nogales et al., supra, (2007)) and the fact that paaH mutants cannot grow on phenylacetate (Ismail et al., supra, (2003)), it is expected that the E. coli paaH gene encodes a 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism fadB P21177.2 119811 Escherichia coli fadJ P77399.1 3334437 Escherichia coli paaH NP_415913.1 16129356 Escherichia coli phaC NP_745425.1 26990000 Pseudomonas putida paaC ABF82235.1 106636095 Pseudomonas fluorescens

3-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase, also called acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, catalyzes the reversible NAD(P)H-dependent conversion of acetoacetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA. This enzyme participates in the acetyl-CoA fermentation pathway to butyrate in several species of Clostridia and has been studied in detail (Jones and Woods, supra, (1986)). Enzyme candidates include hbd from C. acetobutylicum (Boynton et al., J. Bacteriol. 178:3015-3024 (1996)), hbd from C. beijerinckii (Colby et al., Appl Environ. Microbiol 58:3297-3302 (1992)), and a number of similar enzymes from Metallosphaera sedula (Berg et al., supra, (2007)). The enzyme from Clostridium acetobutylicum, encoded by hbd, has been cloned and functionally expressed in E. coli (Youngleson et al., supra, (1989)). Yet other genes demonstrated to reduce acetoacetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA are phbB from Zoogloea ramigera (Ploux et al., supra, (1988)) and phaB from Rhodobacter sphaeroides (Alber et al., supra, (2006)). The former gene is NADPH-dependent, its nucleotide sequence has been determined (Peoples and Sinskey, supra, (1989)) and the gene has been expressed in E. coli. Additional genes include hbdl (C-terminal domain) and hbd2 (N-terminal domain) in Clostridium kluyveri (Hillmer and Gottschalk, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 3334:12-23 (1974)) and HSD17B10 in Bos taurus (WAKIL et al., supra, (1954)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism hbd NP_349314.1 15895965 Clostridium acetobutylicum hbd AAM14586.1 20162442 Clostridium beijerinckii Msed_1423 YP_001191505 146304189 Metallosphaera sedula Msed_0399 YP_001190500 146303184 Metallosphaera sedula Msed_0389 YP_001190490 146303174 Metallosphaera sedula Msed_1993 YP_001192057 146304741 Metallosphaera sedula hbd2 EDK34807.1 146348271 Clostridium kluyveri hbd1 EDK32512.1 146345976 Clostridium kluyveri HSD17B10 O02691.3 3183024 Bos taurus phaB YP_353825.1 77464321 Rhodobacter sphaeroides phbB P23238.1 130017 Zoogloea ramigera 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA Reductase (Aldehyde Forming) (FIG. 4, Step C)

3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA reductase reduces 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA to 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate. Several acyl-CoA dehydrogenases reduce an acyl-CoA to its corresponding aldehyde (EC 1.2.1). Exemplary genes that encode such enzymes include the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus acr1 encoding a fatty acyl-CoA reductase (Reiser and Somerville, supra, (1997)), the Acinetobacter sp. M-1 fatty acyl-CoA reductase (Ishige et al., supra, (2002)), and a CoA- and NADP-dependent succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase encoded by the sucD gene in Clostridium kluyveri (Sohling and Gottschalk, supra, (1996); Sohling and Gottschalk, supra, (1996)). SucD of P. gingivalis is another succinate semialdehyde dehydrogenase (Takahashi et al., supra, (2000)). The enzyme acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in Pseudomonas sp, encoded by bphG, is yet another as it has been demonstrated to oxidize and acylate acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, isobutyraldehyde and formaldehyde (Powlowski et al., supra, (1993)). In addition to reducing acetyl-CoA to ethanol, the enzyme encoded by adhE in Leuconostoc mesenteroides has been shown to oxidize the branched chain compound isobutyraldehyde to isobutyryl-CoA (Koo et al., Biotechnol Lett. 27:505-510 (2005)). Butyraldehyde dehydrogenase catalyzes a similar reaction, conversion of butyryl-CoA to butyraldehyde, in solventogenic organisms such as Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum (Kosaka et al., Biosci. Biotechnol Biochem. 71:58-68 (2007)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism acr1 YP_047869.1 50086359 Acinetobacter calcoaceticus acr1 AAC45217 1684886 Acinetobacter baylyi acr1 BAB85476.1 18857901 Acinetobacter sp. Strain M-1 sucD P38947.1 172046062 Clostridium kluyveri sucD NP_904963.1 34540484 Porphyromonas gingivalis bphG BAA03892.1 425213 Pseudomonas sp adhE AAV66076.1 55818563 Leuconostoc mesenteroides bld AAP42563.1 31075383 Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum

An additional enzyme type that converts an acyl-CoA to its corresponding aldehyde is malonyl-CoA reductase which transforms malonyl-CoA to malonic semialdehyde. Malonyl-CoA reductase is a key enzyme in autotrophic carbon fixation via the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle in thermoacidophilic archael bacteria (Berg et al., supra, (2007b); Thauer, supra, (2007)). The enzyme utilizes NADPH as a cofactor and has been characterized in Metallosphaera and Sulfolobus spp (Alber et al., supra, (2006); Hugler et al., supra, (2002)). The enzyme is encoded by Msed_0709 in Metallosphaera sedula (Alber et al., supra, (2006); Berg et al., supra, (2007b)). A gene encoding a malonyl-CoA reductase from Sulfolobus tokodaii was cloned and heterologously expressed in E. coli (Alber et al., supra, (2006)). This enzyme has also been shown to catalyze the conversion of methylmalonyl-CoA to its corresponding aldehyde (WO/2007/141208). Although the aldehyde dehydrogenase functionality of these enzymes is similar to the bifunctional dehydrogenase from Chloroflexus aurantiacus, there is little sequence similarity. Both malonyl-CoA reductase enzyme candidates have high sequence similarity to aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase, an enzyme catalyzing the reduction and concurrent dephosphorylation of aspartyl-4-phosphate to aspartate semialdehyde. Additional gene candidates can be found by sequence homology to proteins in other organisms including Sulfolobus solfataricus and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. Yet another acyl-CoA reductase (aldehyde forming) candidate is the ald gene from Clostridium beijerinckii (Toth et al., Appl Environ. Microbiol 65:4973-4980 (1999)). This enzyme has been reported to reduce acetyl-CoA and butyryl-CoA to their corresponding aldehydes. This gene is very similar to eutE that encodes acetaldehyde dehydrogenase of Salmonella typhimurium and E. coli (Toth et al., supra, (1999)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism MSED_0709 YP_001190808.1 146303492 Metallosphaera sedula mcr NP_378167.1 15922498 Sulfolobus tokodaii asd-2 NP_343563.1 15898958 Sulfolobus solfataricus Saci_2370 YP_256941.1 70608071 Sulfolobus acidocaldarius Ald AAT66436 9473535 Clostridium beijerinckii eutE AAA80209 687645 Salmonella typhimurium eutE P77445 2498347 Escherichia coli 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanoate Reductase (FIG. 4, Step D)

This enzyme reduces the terminal aldehyde group in 3-hydroxy-5-oxopentanote to the alcohol group. Exemplary genes encoding enzymes that catalyze the conversion of an aldehyde to alcohol (i.e., alcohol dehydrogenase or equivalently aldehyde reductase, 1.1.1.a) include alrA encoding a medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase for C2-C14 (Tani et al., supra, (2000)), ADH2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Atsumi et al., supra, (2008)), yqhD from E. coli which has preference for molecules longer than C(3) (Sulzenbacher et al., supra, (2004)), and bdh I and bdh II from C. acetobutylicum which converts butyryaldehyde into butanol (Walter et al., supra, (1992)). The gene product of yqhD catalyzes the reduction of acetaldehyde, malondialdehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, and acrolein using NADPH as the cofactor (Perez et al., 283:7346-7353 (2008); Perez et al., J Biol. Chem. 283:7346-7353 (2008)). The adhA gene product from Zymomonas mobilis has been demonstrated to have activity on a number of aldehydes including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, and acrolein (Kinoshita et al., Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 22:249-254 (1985)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism alrA BAB12273.1 9967138 Acinetobacter sp. Strain M-1 ADH2 NP_014032.1 6323961 Saccharomyces cerevisiae yqhD NP_417484.1 16130909 Escherichia coli bdh I NP_349892.1 15896543 Clostridium acetobutylicum bdh II NP_349891.1 15896542 Clostridium acetobutylicum adhA YP_162971.1 56552132 Zymomonas mobilis

Enzymes exhibiting 4-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase activity (EC 1.1.1.61) also fall into this category. Such enzymes have been characterized in Ralstonia eutropha (Bravo et al., supra, (2004)), Clostridium kluyveri (Wolff and Kenealy, supra, (1995)) and Arabidopsis thaliana (Breitkreuz et al., supra, (2003)). The A. thaliana enzyme was cloned and characterized in yeast [12882961]. Yet another gene is the alcohol dehydrogenase adhl from Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius (Jeon et al., J Biotechnol 135:127-133 (2008)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism 4hbd YP_726053.1 113867564 Ralstonia eutropha H16 4hbd EDK35022.1 146348486 Clostridium kluyveri 4hbd Q94B07 75249805 Arabidopsis thaliana adhI AAR91477.1 40795502 Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius

Another exemplary enzyme is 3-hydroxyisobutyrate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.31) which catalyzes the reversible oxidation of 3-hydroxyisobutyrate to methylmalonate semialdehyde. This enzyme participates in valine, leucine and isoleucine degradation and has been identified in bacteria, eukaryotes, and mammals. The enzyme encoded by P84067 from Thermus thermophilus HB8 has been structurally characterized (Lokanath et al., J Mol Biol 352:905-17 (2005)). The reversibility of the human 3-hydroxyisobutyrate dehydrogenase was demonstrated using isotopically-labeled substrate (Manning et al., Biochem J231:481-4 (1985)). Additional genes encoding this enzyme include 3hidh in Homo sapiens (Hawes et al., Methods Enzymol 324:218-228 (2000)) and Oryctolagus cuniculus (Hawes et al., supra, (2000); Chowdhury et al., Biosci. Biotechnol Biochem. 60:2043-2047 (1996)), mmsb in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and dhat in Pseudomonas putida (Aberhart et al., J Chem. Soc. [Perkin 1] 6:1404-1406 (1979); Chowdhury et al., supra, (1996); Chowdhury et al., Biosci. Biotechnol Biochem. 67:438-441 (2003)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism P84067 P84067 75345323 Thermus thermophilus mmsb P28811.1 127211 Pseudomonas aeruginosa dhat Q59477.1 2842618 Pseudomonas putida 3hidh P31937.2 12643395 Homo sapiens 3hidh P32185.1 416872 Oryctolagus cuniculus

The conversion of malonic semialdehyde to 3-HP can also be accomplished by two other enzymes: NADH-dependent 3-hydroxypropionate dehydrogenase and NADPH-dependent malonate semialdehyde reductase. An NADH-dependent 3-hydroxypropionate dehydrogenase is thought to participate in beta-alanine biosynthesis pathways from propionate in bacteria and plants (Rathinasabapathi B., Journal of Plant Pathology 159:671-674 (2002); Stadtman, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 77:5765-5766 (1955)). This enzyme has not been associated with a gene in any organism to date. NADPH-dependent malonate semialdehyde reductase catalyzes the reverse reaction in autotrophic CO2-fixing bacteria. Although the enzyme activity has been detected in Metallosphaera sedula, the identity of the gene is not known (Alber et al., supra, (2006)).

3,5-dihydroxypentanoate Kinase (FIG. 4, Step E)

This enzyme phosphorylates 3,5-dihydroxypentanotae in FIG. 4 (Step E) to form 3-hydroxy-5-phosphonatooxypentanoate (3H5PP). This transformation can be catalyzed by enzymes in the EC class 2.7.1 that enable the ATP-dependent transfer of a phosphate group to an alcohol.

A good candidate for this step is mevalonate kinase (EC 2.7.1.36) that phosphorylates the terminal hydroxyl group of the methyl analog, mevalonate, of 3,5-dihydroxypentanote. Some gene candidates for this step are erg12 from S. cerevisiae, mvk from Methanocaldococcus jannaschi, MVK from Homo sapeins, and mvk from Arabidopsis thaliana col.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism erg12 CAA39359.1 3684 Sachharomyces cerevisiae mvk Q58487.1 2497517 Methanocaldococcus jannaschii mvk AAH16140.1 16359371 Homo sapiens M\mvk NP_851084.1 30690651 Arabidopsis thaliana

Glycerol kinase also phosphorylates the terminal hydroxyl group in glycerol to form glycerol-3-phosphate. This reaction occurs in several species, including Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Thermotoga maritima. The E. coli glycerol kinase has been shown to accept alternate substrates such as dihydroxyacetone and glyceraldehyde (Hayashi and Lin, supra, (1967)). T, maritime has two glycerol kinases (Nelson et al., supra, (1999)). Glycerol kinases have been shown to have a wide range of substrate specificity. Crans and Whiteside studied glycerol kinases from four different organisms (Escherichia coli, S. cerevisiae, Bacillus stearothermophilus, and Candida mycoderma) (Crans and Whitesides, supra, (2010); Nelson et al., supra, (1999)). They studied 66 different analogs of glycerol and concluded that the enzyme could accept a range of substituents in place of one terminal hydroxyl group and that the hydrogen atom at C2 could be replaced by a methyl group. Interestingly, the kinetic constants of the enzyme from all four organisms were very similar. The gene candidates are:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism glpK AP_003883.1 89110103 Escherichia coli K12 glpK1 NP_228760.1 15642775 Thermotoga maritime MSB8 glpK2 NP_229230.1 15642775 Thermotoga maritime MSB8 Gut1 NP_011831.1 82795252 Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Homoserine kinase is another possible candidate that can lead to the phosphorylation of 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate. This enzyme is also present in a number of organisms including E. coli, Streptomyces sp, and S. cerevisiae. Homoserine kinase from E. coli has been shown to have activity on numerous substrates, including, L-2-amino,1,4-butanediol, aspartate semialdehyde, and 2-amino-5-hydroxyvalerate (Huo and Viola, supra, (1996); Huo and Viola, supra, (1996)). This enzyme can act on substrates where the carboxyl group at the alpha position has been replaced by an ester or by a hydroxymethyl group. The gene candidates are:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism thrB BAB96580.2 85674277 Escherichia coli K12 SACT1DRAFT_4809 ZP_06280784.1 282871792 Streptomyces sp. ACT-1 Thr1 AAA35154.1 172978 Saccharomyces serevisiae

3H5PP Kinase (FIG. 4, Step F)

Phosphorylation of 3H5PP to 3H5PDP is catalyzed by 3H5PP kinase (FIG. 4, Step F). Phosphomevalonate kinase (EC 2.7.4.2) catalyzes the analogous transformation in the mevalonate pathway. This enzyme is encoded by erg8 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Tsay et al., Mol. Cell Biol. 11:620-631 (1991)) and mvaK2 in Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis (Doun et al., Protein Sci. 14:1134-1139 (2005); Wilding et al., J. Bacteriol. 182:4319-4327 (2000)). The Streptococcus pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecalis enzymes were cloned and characterized in E. coli (Pilloff et al., J Biol. Chem. 278:4510-4515 (2003); Doun et al., Protein Sci. 14:1134-1139 (2005)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism Erg8 AAA34596.1 171479 Saccharomyces cerevisiae mvaK2 AAG02426.1 9937366 Staphylococcus aureus mvaK2 AAG02457.1 9937409 Streptococcus pneumoniae mvaK2 AAG02442.1 9937388 Enterococcus faecalis

3H5PDP Decarboxylase (FIG. 4, Step G)

Butenyl 4-diphosphate is formed from the ATP-dependent decarboxylation of 3H5PDP by 3H5PDP decarboxylase (FIG. 4, Step G). Although an enzyme with this activity has not been characterized to date a similar reaction is catalyzed by mevalonate diphosphate decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.33), an enzyme participating in the mevalonate pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis. This reaction is catalyzed by MVD1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, MVD in Homo sapiens and MDD in Staphylococcus aureus and Trypsonoma brucei (Toth et al., J Biol. Chem. 271:7895-7898 (1996); Byres et al., J Mol. Biol. 371:540-553 (2007)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism MVD1 P32377.2 1706682 Saccharomyces cerevisiae MVD NP_002452.1 4505289 Homo sapiens MDD ABQ48418.1 147740120 Staphylococcus aureus MDD EAN78728.1 70833224 Trypsonoma brucei Butenyl 4-diphosphate Isomerase (FIG. 4, Step H)

Butenyl 4-diphosphate isomerase catalyzes the reversible interconversion of 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate and butenyl-4-diphosphate. The following enzymes can naturally possess this activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Useful genes include those that encode enzymes that interconvert isopenenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. These include isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase enzymes from Escherichia coli (Rodriguez-Concepciön et al., FEBS Lett, 473(3):328-332), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Anderson et al., J Biol Chem, 1989, 264(32);19169-75), and Sulfolobus shibatae (Yamashita et al, Eur J Biochem, 2004, 271(6);1087-93). The reaction mechanism of isomerization, catalyzed by the Idi protein of E. coli, has been characterized in mechanistic detail (de Ruyck et al., J Biol. Chem. 281:17864-17869 (2006)). Isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase enzymes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Bacillus subtilis and Haematococcus pluvialis have been heterologously expressed in E. coli (Laupitz et al., Eur. J Biochem. 271:2658-2669 (2004); Kajiwara et al., Biochem. J 324 (Pt 2):421-426 (1997)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism Idi NP_417365.1 16130791 Escherichia coli IDI1 NP_015208.1 6325140 Saccharomyces cerevisiae Idi BAC82424.1 34327946 Sulfolobus shibatae Idi AAC32209.1 3421423 Haematococcus pluvialis Idi BAB32625.1 12862826 Bacillus subtilis

Butadiene Synthase (FIG. 4, Step I)

Butadiene synthase catalyzes the conversion of 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate to 1,3-butadiene. The enzymes described below naturally possess such activity or can be engineered to exhibit this activity. Isoprene synthase naturally catalyzes the conversion of dimethylallyl diphosphate to isoprene, but can also catalyze the synthesis of 1,3-butadiene from 2-butenyl-4-diphosphate. Isoprene synthases can be found in several organisms including Populus alba (Sasaki et al., FEBS Letters, 2005, 579 (11), 2514-2518), Pueraria montana (Lindberg et al., Metabolic Eng, 12(1):70-79 (2010); Sharkey et al., Plant Physiol., 137(2):700-712 (2005)), and Populus tremula x Populus alba (Miller et al., Planta, 213(3):483-487 (2001)). Additional isoprene synthase enzymes are described in (Chotani et al., WO/2010/031079, Systems Using Cell Culture for Production of Isoprene; Cervin et al., US Patent Application 20100003716, Isoprene Synthase Variants for Improved Microbial Production of Isoprene).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism ispS BAD98243.1 63108310 Populus alba ispS AAQ84170.1 35187004 Pueraria montana ispS CAC35696.1 13539551 Populus tremula × Populus alba

3-Hydroxyglutaryl-CoA Reductase (Alcohol Forming) (FIG. 4, Step J)

This step catalyzes the reduction of the acyl-CoA group in 3-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA to the alcohol group. Exemplary bifunctional oxidoreductases that convert an acyl-CoA to alcohol include those that transform substrates such as acetyl-CoA to ethanol (e.g., adhE from E. coli (Kessler et al., supra, (1991)) and butyryl-CoA to butanol (e.g. adhE2 from C. acetobutylicum (Fontaine et al., supra, (2002)). In addition to reducing acetyl-CoA to ethanol, the enzyme encoded by adhE in Leuconostoc mesenteroides has been shown to oxide the branched chain compound isobutyraldehyde to isobutyryl-CoA (Kazahaya et al., supra, (1972); Koo et al., supra, (2005)).

Another exemplary enzyme can convert malonyl-CoA to 3-HP. An NADPH-dependent enzyme with this activity has characterized in Chloroflexus aurantiacus where it participates in the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle (Hugler et al., supra, (2002); Strauss and Fuchs, supra, (1993)). This enzyme, with a mass of 300 kDa, is highly substrate-specific and shows little sequence similarity to other known oxidoreductases (Hugler et al., supra, (2002)). No enzymes in other organisms have been shown to catalyze this specific reaction; however there is bioinformatic evidence that other organisms can have similar pathways (Klatt et al., supra, (2007)). Enzyme candidates in other organisms including Roseiflexus castenholzii, Erythrobacter sp. NAP1 and marine gamma proteobacterium HTCC2080 can be inferred by sequence similarity.

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism adhE NP_415757.1 16129202 Escherichia coli adhE2 AAK09379.1 12958626 Clostridium acetobutylicum adhE AAV66076.1 55818563 Leuconostoc mesenteroides mcr AAS20429.1 42561982 Chloroflexus aurantiacus Rcas_2929 YP_001433009.1 156742880 Roseiflexus castenholzii NAP1_02720 ZP_01039179.1 85708113 Erythrobacter sp. NAP1 MGP2080_00535 ZP_01626393.1 119504313 marine gamma proteobacterium HTCC2080

Longer chain acyl-CoA molecules can be reduced to their corresponding alcohols by enzymes such as the jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) FAR which encodes an alcohol-forming fatty acyl-CoA reductase. Its overexpression in E. coli resulted in FAR activity and the accumulation of fatty alcohol (Metz et al., Plant Physiology 122:635-644 (2000)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism FAR AAD38039.1 5020215 Simmondsia chinensis

Another candidate for catalyzing this step is 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (or HMG-CoA reductase). This enzyme reduces the CoA group in 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA to an alcohol forming mevalonate. Gene candidates for this step include:

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism HMG1 CAA86503.1 587536 Saccharomyces cerevisiae HMG2 NP_013555 6323483 Saccharomyces cerevisiae HMG1 CAA70691.1 1694976 Arabidopsis thaliana hmgA AAC45370.1 2130564 Sulfolobus solfataricus

The hmgA gene of Sulfolobus solfataricus, encoding 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase, has been cloned, sequenced, and expressed in E. coli (Bochar et al., J Bacteriol. 179:3632-3638 (1997)). S. cerevisiae also has two HMG-CoA reductases in it (Basson et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 83:5563-5567 (1986)). The gene has also been isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana and has been shown to complement the HMG-COA reductase activity in S. cerevisiae (Learned et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 86:2779-2783 (1989)).

3-oxoglutaryl-CoA Reductase (Aldehyde Forming) (FIG. 4, Step K)

Several acyl-CoA dehydrogenases are capable of reducing an acyl-CoA to its corresponding aldehyde. Thus they can naturally reduce 3-oxoglutaryl-CoA to 3,5-dioxopentanoate or can be engineered to do so. Exemplary genes that encode such enzymes were discussed in FIG. 4, Step C.

3,5-dioxopentanoate Reductase (Ketone Reducing) (FIG. 4, Step L)

There exist several exemplary alcohol dehydrogenases that convert a ketone to a hydroxyl functional group. Two such enzymes from E. coli are encoded by malate dehydrogenase (mdh) and lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA). In addition, lactate dehydrogenase from Ralstonia eutropha has been shown to demonstrate high activities on 2-ketoacids of various chain lengths including lactate, 2-oxobutyrate, 2-oxopentanoate and 2-oxoglutarate (Steinbuchel et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 130:329-334 (1983)). Conversion of alpha-ketoadipate into alpha-hydroxyadipate can be catalyzed by 2-ketoadipate reductase, an enzyme reported to be found in rat and in human placenta (Suda et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 176:610-620 (1976); Suda et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 77:586-591 (1977)). An additional candidate for this step is the mitochondrial 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (bdh) from the human heart which has been cloned and characterized (Marks et al., J. Biol. Chem. 267:15459-15463 (1992)) . This enzyme is a dehydrogenase that operates on a 3-hydroxyacid. Another exemplary alcohol dehydrogenase converts acetone to isopropanol as was shown in C. beijerinckii (Ismaiel et al., J. Bacteriol. 175:5097-5105 (1993)) and T. brockii (Lamed et al., Biochem. J. 195:183-190 (1981); Peretz et al., Biochemistry. 28:6549-6555 (1989)). Methyl ethyl ketone reductase, or alternatively, 2-butanol dehydrogenase, catalyzes the reduction of MEK to form 2-butanol. Exemplary enzymes can be found in Rhodococcus ruber (Kosjek et al., Biotechnol Bioeng. 86:55-62 (2004)) and Pyrococcus furiosus (van der et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 268:3062-3068 (2001)).

Protein GenBank ID GI Number Organism mdh AAC76268.1 1789632 Escherichia coli ldhA NP_415898.1 16129341 Escherichia coli ldh YP_725182.1 113866693 Ralstonia eutropha bdh AAA58352.1 177198 Homo sapiens adh AAA23199.2 60592974 Clostridium beijerinckii NRRL B593 adh P14941.1 113443 Thermoanaerobacter brockii HTD4 adhA AAC25556 3288810 Pyrococcus furiosus adh-A CAD36475 21615553 Rhodococcus ruber

A number of organisms can catalyze the reduction of 4-hydroxy-2-butanone to 1,3-butanediol, including those belonging to the genus Bacillus, Brevibacterium, Candida, and Klebsiella among others, as described by Matsuyama et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,922. A mutated Rhodococcus phenylacetaldehyde reductase (Sar268) and a Leifonia alcohol dehydrogenase have also been shown to catalyze this transformation at high yields (Itoh et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 75(6): 1249-1256).

Homoserine dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.13) catalyzes the NAD(P)H-dependent reduction of aspartate semialdehyde to homoserine. In many organisms, including E. coli, homoserine dehydrogenase is a bifunctional enzyme that also catalyzes the ATP-dependent conversion of aspartate to aspartyl-4-phosphate (Starnes et al., Biochemistry 11:677-687 (1972)). The functional domains are catalytically independent and connected by a linker region (Sibilli et al., J Biol Chem 256:10228-10230 (1981)) and both domains are subject to allosteric inhibition by threonine. The homoserine dehydrogenase domain of the E. coli enzyme, encoded by thrA, was separated from the aspartate kinase domain, characterized, and found to exhibit high catalytic activity and reduced inhibition by threonine (James et al., Biochemistry 41:3720-3725 (2002)). This can be applied to other bifunctional threonine kinases including, for example, hom1 of Lactobacillus plantarum (Cahyanto et al., Microbiology 152:105-112 (2006)) and Arabidopsis thaliana. The monofunctional homoserine dehydrogenases encoded by hom6 in S. cerevisiae (Jacques et al., Biochim Biophys Acta 1544:28-41 (2001)) and hom2 in Lactobacillus plantarum (Cahyanto et al., supra, (2006)) have been functionally expressed and characterized in E. coli.

Protein GenBank ID GI number Organism thrA AAC73113.1 1786183 Escherichia coli K12 akthr2 O81852 75100442 Arabidopsis thaliana hom6 CAA89671 1015880 Saccharomyces cerevisiae hom1 CAD64819 28271914 Lactobacillus plantarum hom2 CAD63186 28270285 Lactobacillus plantarum 3,5-dioxopentanoate Reductase (Aldehyde Reducing) (FIG. 4, Step M)

Several aldehyde reducing reductases are capable of reducing an aldehyde to its corresponding alcohol. Thus they can naturally reduce 3,5-dioxopentanoate to 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate or can be engineered to do so. Exemplary genes that encode such enzymes were discussed in FIG. 4, Step D.

5-hydroxy-3-Oxopentanoate Reductase (FIG. 4, Step N)

Several ketone reducing reductases are capable of reducing a ketone to its corresponding hydroxyl group. Thus they can naturally reduce 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate to 3,5-dihydroxypentanoate or can be engineered to do so. Exemplary genes that encode such enzymes were discussed in FIG. 4, Step L.

3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA Reductase (CoA Reducing and Alcohol Forming) (FIG. 4, Step O)

3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA reductase (CoA reducing and alcohol forming) enzymes catalyze the 2 reduction steps required to form 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate from 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA. Exemplary 2-step oxidoreductases that convert an acyl-CoA to an alcohol were provided for FIG. 4, Step J. Such enzymes can naturally convert 3-oxo-glutaryl-CoA to 5-hydroxy-3-oxopentanoate or can be engineered to do so.

Throughout this application various publications have been referenced. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties, including GenBank and GI number publications, are hereby incorporated by reference in this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. Although the invention has been described with reference to the examples provided above, it should be understood that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. 

1-59. (canceled)
 60. A non-naturally occurring microbial organism comprising a biosynthetic pathway for the production of crotyl alcohol wherein said biosynthetic pathway comprises at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding at least one metabolic pathway enzyme expressed in a sufficient amount to produce crotyl alcohol, wherein said biosynthetic pathway comprises converting crotonyl-CoA to crotyl alcohol using one or more metabolic pathway enzymes, wherein said metabolic pathway enzymes are selected from the group consisting of: (i) a crotonyl-CoA reductase converting crotonyl-CoA to crotonaldehyde, and a crotonaldehyde reductase converting crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol; (ii) a crotonyl-CoA reductase converting crotonyl-CoA to crotyl alcohol; and (iii) a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, a crotonyl-CoA synthetase, or a crotonyl-CoA transferase converting crotonyl-CoA to crotonate, a crotonate reductase converting crotonate to crotonaldehyde, and a crotonaldehyde reductase converting crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol, and wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises: (i) converting acetyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase and a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase; (ii) converting glutaconyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase; (iii) converting glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase; (iv) converting 3-aminobutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase; or (v) converting 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase.
 61. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60, wherein said microbial organism comprises one, two, three, four, five or six exogenous nucleic acids each encoding a metabolic pathway enzyme.
 62. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60, wherein said biosynthetic pathway comprises a crotonyl-CoA reductase converting crotonyl-CoA to crotonaldehyde and a crotonaldehyde reductase converting crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol.
 63. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 62, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting acetyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase and a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase.
 64. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 62, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting glutaconyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase.
 65. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 62, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase.
 66. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 62, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting 3-aminobutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase.
 67. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 62, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase.
 68. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60, wherein said biosynthetic pathway comprises a crotonyl-CoA reductase converting crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol.
 69. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 68, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting acetyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase and a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase.
 70. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 68, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting glutaconyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase.
 71. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 68, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase.
 72. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 68, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting 3-aminobutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase.
 73. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 68, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase.
 74. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60, said biosynthetic pathway comprises a crotonyl-CoA hydrolase, crotonyl-CoA synthetase or crotonyl-CoA transferase converting crotonyl-CoA to crotonate, a crotonate reductase converting crotonate to crotonaldehyde, and crotonaldehyde reductase converting crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol.
 75. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 74, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting acetyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an acetyl-CoA:acetyl-CoA acyltransferase, an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase and a 3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase.
 76. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 74, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting glutaconyl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaconyl-CoA decarboxylase.
 77. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 74, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase.
 78. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 74, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting 3-aminobutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using an 3-aminobutyryl-CoA deaminase.
 79. The non-naturally occurring micoribal organism of claim 74, wherein said biosynthetic pathway further comprises converting 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA using a 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase.
 80. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60, wherein said at least one exogenous nucleic acid is a heterologous nucleic acid.
 81. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60, wherein said non-naturally occurring microbial organism is in a substantially anaerobic culture medium.
 82. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60, wherein said microbial organism is a bacteria, a yeast, or a fungus.
 83. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 82, wherein said a bacteria is Escherichia coli.
 84. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 82, wherein said a yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
 85. A method for producing crotyl alcohol comprising culturing the non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 60 under conditions and for a sufficient period of time to produce crotyl alcohol.
 86. The method of claim 85, wherein said non-naturally occurring microbial organism is in a substantially anaerobic culture medium.
 87. The method of claim 85, wherein said method further comprises separating the butadiene from other components in the culture.
 88. The method of claim 87, wherein the separating comprises extraction, continuous liquid-liquid extraction, pervaporation, membrane filtration, membrane separation, reverse osmosis, distillation, centrifugation, extractive filtration, ion exchange chromatography, absorption chromatography, or ultrafiltration. 